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HOME  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 
OF  MODERN  KNOWLEDGE 

No.  36 

Editor t: 

HERBERT    FISHER,  M.A.,  P.B.A. 
PROF.  GILBERT  MURRAY,  LrrT.D., 

LL.D.,  F.B.A. 

PROF.  J.  ARTHUR    THOMSON,  M.A. 
PROF.  WILLIAM  T.  BREWSTER,  M.A. 


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HISTORY  AND  GEOGRAPHY 

Already  Published 

THE  DAWN  OF  HISTORY  ...  By  J.  L.MYMS 
ROME  .....  By  W.  WARDK  FOWLE* 

THE  PAPACY  'AND   MODERN 

TTMFS  .   By  WILLIAM  BARRY 

MEDIEVAL  EUROPE  .'  .....  By  H.  W.  C.  DAVIS 
THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION  .  By  HILAIRE  BELLOC 
>JAPOTFON  ...  By  H.  A.  L,.  riSHEE 

TAN  ADA        '    *   '  •   By  A.  G.  BRADLEY 

THE  COLONIAL   PERIOD    .   .   .   By  CHARLES  M.  ANDREWS 

°N  T0  LINCOLN 


,  . 

THE  HI|TORY  "OF  ENGLAND  .  By  A.  F.  POLLARD 

HISTORY  OF  OUR  TIME  O8SS-         Q   p 


EXPLORATION  (withmaps)By  W.  S.  BRUCE 
THE  OPENING  UP  OF  AFRICA  By  SIR  H.  H.  JOHHSTOM 
THE  CIVILIZATION  OF  CHINA  By  H.  A.  GILES 

PROBLEMS          By  SIR  T.  W.  HOLDERS. 


.  ByG.  H.  PERRIS 

MODERN  GEOGRAPHY  .....  By  MARION  N«w,ia« 


.    By  W.  R.  SHKPHKRD 

J  .  .'  I  By  CHAS.   TOWER 


Future  Issues 
°F  EUR°P 

ASHORT  HsTORYOF  RUSSIA  By 


g 

By  PRINCIPAL  LINDSAY 

S  ?: 


.    .   B       f. 

.     :    •  K 
ALPINE  EXPLORATION     ...  By  A.NOLD  LUNH 


PROBLEMS  OF   INDIA 


BY 


SIR  T.  W.  HOLDERNESS 


K.C.S.I. 


NEW  YORK 
HENRY   HOLT  AND   COMPANY 

LONDON 
WILLIAMS   AND    NORGATE 


-    s 

.^3 


CONTENTS 

mum.  MM 

I    THE  COUNTRY  .....  7 

II    ITS  HISTOEY   .....  35 

III  THE  PEOPLE   .  «A 

•  • 

IV  THE  CASTE  SYSTEM          .        .  gg 
V    RELIGIONS       ....  106 

VI    ECONOMIC  LIFE       ...  136 

VII    THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  BRITISH  INDIA  .       157 

VIII    THE  NATIVE  STATES         ...  181 

IX    ADMINISTRATIVE  PROBLEMS      .        .  .      208 

X    POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  MOVEMENTS  .  .      233 
BIBLIOGRAPHY          .....      253 

.....  265 


PREFATORY   NOTE 

THE  following  pages  were  printed  off  before 
the  announcement  at  the  Delhi  Coronation 
Durbar  (December  12,  1911)  of  the  decision 
of  His  Majesty's  Government  to  transfer  the 
seat  of  the  Government  of  India  from 
Calcutta  to  the  ancient  capital  of  Delhi,  and 
simultaneously  to  make,  in  modification  of 
the  partition  of  1905,  extensive  changes  in 
the  government  of  Bengal.  The  declared 
object  of  these  measures  is  to  give  greater 
autonomy  to  provincial  governments,  to 
recognise  provincial  sentiment  and  aspira- 
tions, and  to  relieve  the  central  government 
of  direct  responsibility  for  provincial  affairs. 
These  principles  are  discussed  and  their 
importance  recognised  in  the  present  work. 


PEOPLES  AND  PROBLEMS 
OF  INDIA 


CHAPTER   I 

THE    COUNTRY 

A  COUNTRY  makes  its  inhabitants  in  more 
senses  than  one.     This  is  true  of  India. 

In  the  first  place  a  country  must  be  able 
to  sustain  inhabitants,  or  they  will  not 
exist.  There  is  a  natural  limit  to  its  popu- 
lation. At  one  extreme  is  the  Sahara  desert, 
at  the  other  the  Nile  valley.  In  India  both 
extremes  are  found.  The  native  state  of 
Jaisalmir  in  western  Rajputana  can  barely 
support  a  population  of  under  five  persons 
to  the  square  mile.  In  the  Gangetic  plain 
500  to  the  square  mile  is  of  common  occurrence. 
We  are  speaking  of  course  of  purely  agricul- 
tural tracts.  Where  manufactures  exist  which 
can  be  exchanged  for  food,  the  case  is  different. 

Again,   a  country   may   be  said  to  make 
its      inhabitants     in     that     their     faculties 
and  dispositions  are  largely    influenced    by 
7 


8  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

its  physical  and  climatic  conditions.  The 
statement  that  man  is  the  product  of  his 
surroundings  is  qualified  by  the  fact  that  race 
has  a  great  resisting  power.  The  qualities 
of  race  will  often  persist  in  the  face  of  adverse 
circumstances.  The  many  races  that  make 
up  the  population  of  India  maintain  their 
distinctive  characters,  though  for  centuries 
they  have  lived  side  by  side.  None  the  less 
India  has  stamped  them  with  a  common  seal, 
and  has  wrought  out  a  recognisable  type 
amid  a  great  profusion  of  species. 

Lastly,  a  country  makes  its  inhabitants  so 
far  as  it  determines  their  political  history. 
The  fertility  of  a  country  may  prove  its 
ruin,  if  accompanied  by  a  soft  and  languid 
climate  which  saps  the  energies  and  weakens 
the  combative  instincts  of  the  inhabitants. 
Of  this  Egypt  is  an  instructive  example.  It 
has  passed  from  one  conqueror  to  another 
until  it  has  lost  the  consciousness  of  national 
life.  India,  like  Egypt,  has  been  the  coveted 
prize  of  the  strong.  But  unlike  Egypt  it  has 
in  the  long  run  absorbed  its  invaders  and 
maintained  its  own  civilisation.  It  has  been 
able  to  do  this  because  its  natural  frontiers 
have  protected  it  from  invasion  except  at  one 
or  two  points.  These  points  are  so  distant 
from  the  centre  that  invasions  of  India  always 
lost  something  of  their  first  impetus  before 
they  could  be  pressed  home. 


THE  COUNTRY  9 

"  India,"  as  we  use  the  word,  denotes  the 
whole  of  the  sub-continent  which  is  cut  off 
by  the  Himalaya  mountains  from  the  rest 
of  Asia.  Its  derivation  is  interesting.  It 
comes  from  the  Sanskrit  "  Sindhu  "  (literally 
"  river  "  or  "  flood  "),  and  this  was  the  name 
given  by  the  early  Aryan  invaders  of  India 
to  the  great  river  on  which  they  settled  when 
they  entered  the  plains  country  from  the 
highlands  of  central  Asia.  To-day  this  river 
is  the  Indus.  To  the  Aryan  settlers  it  was 
"  the  river  " — the  sign  and  symbol  of  their 
new  possessions.  With  its  great  tributaries 
it  is  still  the  most  important  feature  of 
northern  India.  The  coming  of  the  Aryans 
into  India  is  distant  three  thousand  or  four 
thousand  years,  and  we  have  no  clear  record  of 
their  settlement.  But  their  sacrificial  hymns 
are  preserved  in  the  Sanskrit  Rig  Veda,  "  the 
first  word  spoken  by  Aryan  man,"  and  thus  we 
know  that  the  Aryans  were  a  branch  of  the 
Indo-European  stock  and  spoke  a  language 
closely  allied  to  the  languages  of  Greeks, 
Romans,  Celts  and  Germans.  Their  first 
settlements  were  confined  to  northern  India. 
To  them  the  new  country  was  simply  the 
land  of  the  Indus.  Their  later  hymns  show 
that  as  they  spread  eastwards  and  southwards, 
expelling  or  enslaving  dark-hued  primitive 
races,  their  idea  of  the  country  expanded. 
They  then  knew  it  as  the  land  of  the  Indus 


10  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

and  the  Ganges.  We  will  not  here  pursue 
their  later  fortunes.  The  point  of  interest  in 
this  early  glimpse  of  India  is  that  we  see  it  in 
the  act  of  being  invaded  by  hardy  people  from 
the  north.  This  fact  is  imbedded  in  the  name 
"  India."  The  history  of  India  is  a  repetition 
of  this  fact. 

"  India  "  thus  meant  originally  the  great 
river ;  then  the  region  watered  by  that  river 
(the  Indus)  and  its  tributaries.  We  may  see 
in  this  the  notion,  natural  in  dry  eastern 
countries,  that  it  is  water  alone  that  makes 
land  of  value.  This  is  strictly  true  of  the 
greater  part  of  India.  Without  the  Indus 
and  its  streams  the  plains  of  northern  India 
would  be  uncultivated  and  uninhabitable. 
The  same  truth  is  expressed  in  the  name 
"  Punjab."  The  province  bearing  this  name 
which  stretches  from  the  Indus  on  the  west 
to  the  Gangetic  plain  on  the  east  is  literally 
"  the  land  of  the  five  rivers." 

We  may  glance  at  another  ancient  word 
which  is  of  much  import  to  India.  It  is 
impossible  to  imagine  the  Indian  continent 
without  the  Himalayan  mountains.  They 
were  much  in  the  minds  of  the  early  Aryan 
settlers.  "  Himalaya "  in  Sanskrit  meant 
"  the  place  of  snow."  As  the  rivers  of 
northern  India  gave  food  and  pasturage  to  the 
immigrants  from  central  Asia,  so  the  snowy 
rampart  that  closed  them  in  on  the  north 


THE  COUNTRY  11 

gave  food  to  their  imagination.  They  placed 
the  seats  of  their  gods  in  the  Himalaya,  and 
they  saw  in  them  the  mysterious  source  of 
their  beloved  rivers.  The  ice-cave  in  which 
the  Ganges  rises  among  the  high  snows  became 
to  later  fancy  the  matted  locks  of  Siva,  the 
great  god  of  life  and  death.  Other  wild 
and  fantastic  legends  of  the  same  kind  show 
how  deeply  the  minds  of  the  early  Aryan 
settlers  were  impressed  by  the  grandeur  of 
the  Himalaya.  The  instinct  was  a  right 
one.  It  anticipated  the  reverence  with  which 
we  with  ampler  knowledge  regard  these 
inaccessible  peaks.  In  them  are  fashioned 
the  rivers  which  give  life  to  the  plains  of 
India.  The  melting  of  their  snows  in  the 
early  summer  causes  these  rivers  to  rise  and 
thus  provides  an  unfailing  supply  of  water 
for  the  great  canals  that  irrigate  the  country. 
Later  on  in  the  year  the  Himalaya  play 
another  part.  They  intercept  the  vapour- 
laden  winds  as  they  blow  across  India  from 
the  equator,  and  compel  them  to  discharge 
their  burden  in  fertilising  rain.  The  historian 
sees  in  the  Himalaya  a  wall  of  seclusion  which 
has  kept  Indian  civilisation  as  a  thing  apart 
and  given  it  a  unique  flavour.  The  statesman 
views  them  as  the  barrier  between  the  warm 
and  fertile  plains  of  India  and  hungry  prowlers 
without.  The  barrier,  as  will  be  seen,  can 
be  turned  at  either  end.  But  for  all  that  it 


12  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

is  the  strongest  and  most  remarkable  mountain 
barrier  in  the  world. 

"  Monsoon  "  is  another  word  of  vital  import 
to  India.  It  comes  from  an  Arabian  word 
meaning  "  times  "  or  "  seasons."  A  monsoon 
wind  is  a  seasonal  wind,  that  is,  one  that 
blows  continuously  from  a  certain  quarter 
during  a  certain  period  of  the  year ;  and  a 
monsoon  region  is  one  in  which  the  climate 
is  entirely  controlled  by  winds  of  this  kind. 
India  is  such  a  region.  It  has  well-defined 
seasons  of  rain  and  clear  skies,  and  these 
depend  upon  conditions  of  atmosphere  and 
temperature  not  in  India  itself,  but  in  the 
Indian  ocean  and  adjacent  lands.  Broadly 
speaking  nearly  the  whoie  raimall  of  India  is 
confined  to  about  three  or  four  months  of  the 
year.  From  Marcn  to  June  the  Indian 
continent  heats  up  and  the  pressure  of  the  air 
over  the  heated  sunace  becomes  less  than  that 
over  the  Indian  ocean.  Similar  conditions 
prevail  in  Africa.  A  strong  indraugnt  is 
thus  established  in  the  land  masses  north  of 
the  equator,  and  currents  of  air  laden  with 
moisture  from  the  soutnern  seas  pour  across 
the  line,  and  bring  about  the  rainy  season. 
In  the  greater  part  of  India  this  season  lasts 
from  the  middle  of  June  to  the  middle  or 
end  of  September.  In  southern  India  some- 
what different  conditions  prevail,  and  the 
rainfall  is  chiefly  in  the  later  months  of  the 


THE  COUNTRY  13 

year.  If  the  monsoon  current  is  of  normal 
strength  and  persistency,  the  harvests  will 
be  good  and  the  cultivator  will  rejoice.  If 
it  is  weak  and  short-lived  there  is  drought 
and  "  famine."  The  monsoon  therefore  is 
the  dominating  fact  in  the  Indian  year. 
Not  only  does  the  monsoon  current  vary 
in  strength  from  year  to  year,  but  its 
distribution  in  India  itself  is  extremely 
unequal.  It  is  a  thing  of  twists  and 
turns,  very  sensitive  to  local  conditions.  If 
it  strikes  hills  it  dissolves  in  sheets  of  rain, 
but  over  a  flat  country  it  passes  without 
expending  a  shower.  A  large  part  of  north- 
western India  for  instance  is  practically  rain- 
less— either  desert  or  dependent  on  irrigation 
from  tne  snow-led  rivers.  Bengal  and  Assam 
in  the  east  are  tracts  of  superabundant  rain. 
There  are  other  tracts  wnere  the  rainfall  is 
just  sufficient ;  and  others  where  it  is  pre- 
carious and  often  deficient. 

The  map  of  Asia  shows  India  as  a  large 
irregular  triangle  projecting  southwards  into 
the  Indian  ocean.  Relatively  to  the  rest  of 
Asia  the  sub-continent  looks  small.  But  it 
is  larger  than  Europe  without  Russia  and 
contains  one-fifth  of  the  human  race.  It  is 
not  one  country,  as  we  know  countries  in 
Europe,  but  many  countries.  Its  southern 
extremity  is  within  ten  degrees  of  the  equator. 
Its  most  northerly  point  is  about  the  latitude 


14  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

of  Lisbon.  The  two  points  are  distant  from 
each  other  nearly  two  thousand  miles.  From 
extreme  east  to  extreme  west  along  the 
northern  boundary  the  distance  is  equally 
great.  In  so  extensive  a  region  there  is  room 
for  many  climates,  and  in  fact  India  in  this 
respect  presents  greater  contrasts  than  do 
the  countries  of  Europe.  An  Englishman 
who  travels  through  Europe  to  southern 
Greece  is  struck  by  the  variety  of  climates 
through  which  he  passes.  But  he  would 
be  much  more  struck  by  the  contrast  which 
the  Malabar  coast  with  its  beauty  and  tropical 
luxuriance  presents  to  the  treeless  plains  of 
the  Punjab,  or  the  hills  and  glades  of  central 
India  to  the  rice  fields  and  palm  groves  of 
lower  Bengal.  The  difference  is  not  merely 
in  scenery  but  in  every  climatic  condition. 
In  Malabar  there  is  the  perpetual  summer  of 
the  tropics  with  the  heat  and  moisture  of  a 
forcing  house.  In  the  Punjab  there  are 
extremes  of  cold  and  heat.  For  most  of  the 
years  its  plains  are  brown  and  arid,  scorched 
in  summer  with  fiery  winds  like  the  blast  of  a 
furnace ;  in  winter  they  are  clothed  in  a 
mantle  of  green  crops,  while  the  climate  is 
that  of  a  Riviera  winter.  In  central  India 
there  are  well-defined  seasons  of  heat  and 
cold  with  no  great  extremes.  Heat  and 
moisture  predominate  in  Bengal  and  make  it 
one  of  the  dampest  and  greenest  countries  of 


THE  COUNTRY  Ib 

the  earth.  Still  greater  contrasts  could  be 
found  if  the  Himalayan  region  and  the  deserts 
of  Sind  were  included  in  the  account.  The 
Himalaya  themselves  exhibit  every  gradation 
of  cold  and  heat,  of  luxuriance  and  sterility, 
of  loveliness  and  desolation.  But  enough  has 
been  said  to  make  it  clear  that  India  is  a 
continent,  not  a  country,  and  a  continent  of 
infinite  variety. 

What  are  the  limits  or  boundaries  of  India  ? 
We  must  distinguish  between  the  natural 
limits  of  India,  as  determined  by  its  moun- 
tains and  rivers,  and  its  political  boundaries. 
By  the  latter  we  mean  the  limits  of  the  British 
Indian  Empire,  as  indicated  by  the  red 
boundary  line  drawn  round  the  Indian 
continent  on  the  map  of  Asia.  The  political 
boundary  obviously  includes  a  good  deal  of 
country  that  is  not  Indian.  On  the  extreme 
east  the  province  of  Burma  is  geographically 
part  of  China,  and  is  parted  from  the  Indian 
continent  by  a  mass  of  mountains.  On  the 
extreme  west  the  political  boundary  makes  a 
wide  bend  beyond  the  Indus  and  takes  in 
large  tracts  of  mountainous  country  on  the 
borders  of  Persia,  Afghanistan  and  China. 
On  the  north  the  Himalaya  seem  at  first  sight 
to  provide  a  clear  frontier  line.  They  look 
on  a  map  like  a  continuous  rampart:  they 
suggest  that  India  might  stop  where  they 
rise  from  the  plains.  But  a  large  scale  map 


16  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

on  examination  shows  that  the  Himalaya 
are  not  a  single  range  of  mountains  but  many 
ranges,  and  that  the  political  boundary  is 
laid  far  back  in  their  recesses.  The  red  line 
includes  from  east  to  west  an  average  breadth 
of  one  hundred  miles  of  the  mountainous 
region  of  the  Himalaya.  It  should  also  be 
noted  that  the  Himalayan  tract  within  the 
red  boundary  is  shown  in  different  colours. 
The  greater  part  is  coloured  red.  This  means 
British  territory.  In  the  north-west  angle 
a  large  area  is  coloured  yellow.  This  is  the 
"  protected  "  native  state  of  Kashmir,  whose 
ruler  is  under  the  suzerainty  of,  and  owes 
allegiance  to,  the  British  Crown.  In  the 
central  section  a  large  area  is  coloured  green. 
This  is  the  native  state  of  Nepal.  It  is  not  a 
"  protected  "  state  like  Kashmir,  and  in  all 
internal  affairs  enjoys  complete  independence. 
But  it  is  bound  by  treaty  to  the  British 
alliance,  and  in  foreign  policy  it  is  within  the 
British  sphere  of  influence. 

Thus  the  political  boundaries  of  India  have 
been  laid  out  on  a  generous  scale.  It  is  as  if  the 
owner  of  a  large  estate  in  an  unsettled  country 
had  taken  in  on  every  side  as  much  rough 
land  as  he  thought  was  necessary  for  his 
privacy,  and  for  keeping  marauders  off  his  fields 
and  homestead.  It  is  exactly  what  has  hap- 
pened in  the  building  up  of  the  British  Indian 
empire.  The  wide-flung  political  boundary  of 


THE  COUNTRY  17 

India  marks  the  steps  that  have  been  taken  to 
seize  advantageous  points  or  to  put  down 
troublesome  neighbours.  The  acquisition  of 
territory  in  Burma  for  instance  was  due  to 
the  invasion  of  the  British  province  of  Assam 
by  the  Burmese  kings.  Later  acquisitions  in 
Burma  were  in  like  manner  provoked  by  the 
policy  of  the  Burmese  and  by  fear  of  French 
intrusion  from  the  side  of  Tonquin.  The 
same  process  on  a  still  larger  scale  has  created 
the  present  political  frontier  on  the  north-west 
side  of  India  beyond  the  Indus.  On  this  side 
India  has  always  been  exposed  to  raids  and 
invasions.  There  are  four  or  five  routes 
through  Afghanistan  and  the  neighbouring 
mountainous  country  which  from  the  earliest 
ages  have  been  followed  by  invading  hosts. 
For  centuries  an  independent  Afghanistan 
meant  trouble  to  India.  An  adventurous 
chief  who  established  himself  at  Kabul  or  at 
Ghazni  had  control  of  the  passes  into  India, 
and  could  command  the  services  of  all  the 
freebooters  of  Asia  when  he  set  out  to  invade 
it.  The  most  powerful  sovereigns  of  India 
have  found  it  essential  to  hold  the  northern 
approaches  among  the  mountains  west  of 
the  Indus.  When  they  lost  these  they  lost 
the  Indus  valley  and  the  western  Punjab. 
The  British  rulers  of  India  have  followed  the 
same  law  of  self-preservation.  From  the 
Indus  they  have  advanced  their  political 


18  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

boundary  into  the  mountains  beyond  it.  A 
part  of  these  non-Indian  lands  is  now  included 
in  British  India.  But  a  larger  part  is  con- 
trolled by  a  system  of  protectorates,  where 
British  influence  prevails  but  where  the  actual 
government  is  left  to  the  tribes  themselves. 
A  still  larger  portion  is  left  to  the  kingdom  of 
Afghanistan,  under  an  independent  ruler 
seated  at  Kabul.  But  though  independent, 
he  receives  a  subsidy  from  the  British  Indian 
Government ;  he  is  bound  to  act  in  alliance 
with  it,  and  in  external  policy  his  territories 
are  recognised  as  within  the  sphere  of  British 
influence. 

The  political  boundaries  of  the  British 
Indian  Empire  thus  illustrate  on  a  very  large 
scale  the  practice  of  "  throwing  out  a  line  of 
frontier  round  a  wide  tract  of  unsettled 
country  in  order  to  exclude  rivals."  They 
include  in  consequence  a  great  extent  of 
country  that  is  geographically  speaking  not 
Indian. 

The  natural  boundaries  of  India  consist  of 
sea  and  land.  The  sea  boundary  on  the  east 
and  west  calls  for  no  description.  But  the 
land  boundary  on  the  northern  face  is  intricate. 
The  Himalaya,  as  has  been  already  said,  are 
not  a  well-defined  mountain  chain  running 
across  the  country  from  sea  to  sea.  They 
are  a  part  of  a  great  mountain  region  where 
range  follows  range,  and  where  the  water 


.     THE  COUNTRY  19 

parting  lies  behind  the  central  range  of  snows. 
The  Himalayan  mountains,  which  tower 
above  the  plains  of  India  in  a  continuous  line 
of  snowy  peaks,  are  but  the  wrinkled  southern 
edge  of  the  great  Tibetan  plateau.  Their 
highest  range  is  at  a  distance  of  eighty  to  a 
hundred  miles  from  the  plains.  Between  it 
and  the  plains  are  minor  ridges  intersected 
by  streams  and  valleys.  Behind  the  snow-line 
is  a  deep  depression  or  trough,  in  which 
west  and  east  fed  by  glacial  streams  run 
rivers  which  eventually  terminate  in  India. 
Westward  runs  the  Indus,  and  eastward  a 
river  which  in  India  becomes  the  Brahma- 
putra. Both  rivers  take  their  rise  near  the 
glacial  lake  of  Manasarowar  and  the  peak  of 
Kailas,  names  among  the  most  sacred  of 
Hindu  mythology.  The  Indus  bursts  into 
India  at  Attock,  near  the  military  station  of 
Peshawar,  after  a  journey  of  seven  hundred 
miles  in  its  rocky  cradle  in  the  mountains. 
The  Brahmaputra  enters  Assam  after  a  still 
longer  course.  The  trough  which  thus  conveys 
them  to  India  in  opposite  directions  is  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  in  the  world.  It  has 
not  been  explored  throughout  its  entire  length. 
Portions  only  of  its  mighty  gorges  have  been 
seen  by  human  eyes.  To  the  north  of  the 
trough  is  the  table-land  of  Tibet,  the  most 
elevated  region  of  the  kind  in  the  world. 
Its  average  elevation  is  from  fifteen  thousand 


20  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

to  eighteen  thousand  feet  above  the  sea — a 
height  surpassing  that  of  the  loftiest  mountains 
of  Europe.  Its  width  is  from  three  hundred 
to  four  hundred  miles.  Geologists  have  shown 
that  the  Himalaya  and  the  Tibetan  plateau 
are  essentially  one  formation,  and  are  due  to 
the  same  cause.  In  comparatively  recent 
times  as  geological  periods  go  this  portion  of 
the  earth's  surface  was  forced  up  by  contrac- 
tion of  the  crust.  The  Indus-Brahmaputra 
trough  is  a  mere  crack  or  scratch  in  the 
surface  of  this  vast  elevated  region. 

The  Himalaya  are  contained  between  the 
Indus  where  it  bends  and  enters  India  on  the 
west,  and  the  Brahmaputra  where  it  makes 
a  similar  bend  and  enters  India  on  the  east. 
In  their  length  of  fifteen  hundred  miles  there 
are  three  or  four  points  where  a  passage  into 
Tibet  or  China  is  possible.  Through  these 
high  passes  races  of  Mongolian  origin  have 
filtered  into  Himalayan  valleys  and  made 
their  homes  there  ;  and  during  the  summer 
months  a  certain  amount  of  trade  struggles 
through  them.  But  to  an  invasion  in  force 
the  Himalaya,  as  thus  defined,  are  an  im- 
passable obstacle.  North  and  west  of  the 
Indus,  however,  the  complete  protection 
afforded  by  the  Himalaya  ceases.  Their 
place  is  taken  by  other  mountain  ranges, 
stretching  down  to  the  Persian  Gulf.  These 
mountains  are  often  as  lofty  and  imposing 


THE  COUNTRY  21 

as  the  Himalaya,  but  they  are  not  so  con- 
tinuous. They  contain  open  tracts  inhabited 
by  hardy  tribes,  and  they  are  traversed  by 
several  routes,  which,  though  difficult,  are 
quite  practicable  for  large  armies.  They  are 
really  highlands  belonging  to  Persia  and 
Central  Asia  rather  than  to  India.  The 
distinctively  Indian  races  stop  at  the  east 
bank  of  the  Indus,  and  geographically  that 
river  is  the  western  limit  of  India.  But  a 
river  is  never  a  strong  political  frontier. 
It  is  not  surprising  that  from  the  mountains 
beyond  the  Indus  all  the  great  invasions  of 
India  in  times  past  have  proceeded,  and  that 
this  is  still  its  vulnerable  point. 

At  the  eastern  end  of  the  Himalaya,  where 
the  Brahmaputra  bends  round  and  enters 
India,  the  feature  noticed  in  the  mountains 
west  of  the  Indus  is  repeated.  Between  the 
Himalaya  and  the  head  of  the  Bay  of  Bengal 
the  land  frontier  is  formed  by  a  new  set  of 
mountain  ranges  running  from  north  to 
south.  They  seem  on  the  map  to  be  an 
extension  of  the  Himalaya  and  an  equally 
efficient  barrier  between  India  and  the  outer 
world.  But  they  are  not  as  protective  as 
they  look.  There  is  no  doubt  that  through 
them  in  ancient  times  large  bodies  of  immi- 
grants passed  into  India  from  China,  and  in 
quite  recent  times  they  did  not  prevent  a 
Burmese  invasion  and  the  occupation  of  an 


22  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

Indian  province  by  Burmese  kings.  In  the 
present  province  of  eastern  Bengal  and  Assam 
the  population  is  largely  Mongolian  in  type, 
and  must  originally  have  been  recruited  from 
China.  Hitherto  the  eastern  frontier  of  India 
proper  has  given  the  rulers  of  India  no 
serious  anxiety.  But  the  position  might 
be  changed  if  China  should  in  the  future 
become  an  efficient  military  power  like 
Japan.  In  that  case  the  danger  point  might 
possibly  be  found  on  the  frontier  of  Burma, 
our  latest  extra-Indian  acquisition. 

This  completes  all  that  need  be  said  about 
the  natural  boundaries  of  India.  Internally 
the  country  falls  into  three  great  regions,  the 
Himalayan  region,  the  Indo-Gangetic  plain, 
and  the  peninsula  proper. 

The  Himalaya  have  already  been  described 
in  our  survey  of  the  external  bounds  of  India. 
But  the  fact  cannot  be  too  firmly  grasped 
that  these  mountains  are  not  only  an  external 
boundary,  but  form  within  India  an  extensive 
alpine  region,  very  much  larger  and  containing 
a  much  greater  population  than  Switzerland. 
The  enchanting  valley  of  Kashmir  is  the 
most  famous  and  the  largest  of  many  similar 
valleys  within  the  Himalaya.  The  Himalaya 
give  to  India  her  principal  rivers,  and  through 
their  influence  on  the  rainfall  they  affect  all 
the  conditions  of  life  in  the  plains  above 
which  they  rise.  They  are  the  source  not 


THE  COUNTRY  23 

only  of  the  Brahmaputra  and  the  Indus  and 
their  tributaries,  but  also  of  the  equally  great 
river  system  of  the  Ganges. 

The  Indo-Gangetic  plain  lies  between  the 
footwall  of  the  Himalaya  and  the  peninsula 
proper.  The  latter  term  needs  explanation. 
Relatively  to  the  Asiatic  continent  the  whole 
of  India  may  be  regarded  as  a  peninsula. 
But  the  term  is  more  appropriately  applied 
to  the  southern  portion  that  is  washed  on 
either  side  by  the  sea.  A  line  drawn  hori- 
zontally on  the  map  from  Calcutta  to  Karachi 
cuts  off  this  southern  triangle  from  the 
extra-peninsular  or  continental  part  of  India. 
Peninsular  India  or  the  Deccan  (literally,  the 
country  to  the  south)  is  geologically  distinct 
from  the  Indo-Gangetic  plain  and  the  Hima- 
laya. It  is  the  remains  of  a  former  continent 
which  stretched  continuously  to  Africa  in 
the  space  now  occupied  by  the  Indian  Ocean. 
The  rocks  of  which  it  is  formed  are  among  the 
oldest  in  the  world  and  show  no  traces  of 
having  ever  been  submerged.  In  many  parts 
they  are  overlaid  by  a  sheet  of  black  "  trap  " 
rock  or  basalt,  which  once  flowed  over  them 
as  molten  lava.  In  the  Deccan  we  are, 
therefore,  in  the  first  days  of  the  world. 
We  see  land  substantially  as  it  existed  before 
the  beginnings  of  life. 

The  Indo-Gangetic  plain  stretches  without 
a  break  from  the  Indus  on  the  west  to  the 


24  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

delta  of  the  Ganges  on  the  east,  a  distance 
of  twelve  hundred  miles.  When  the  world 
was  still  in  the  making  and  before  the  elevation 
of  the  Himalaya,  the  space  now  occupied 
by  this  plain  was  a  sea.  The  southern  shore 
of  this  sea  was  what  is  now  peninsular  India. 
With  the  rise  of  the  Himalaya  the  sea  dis- 
appeared, and  the  rivers  draining  the 
Himalaya  flowed  into  the  depression,  bringing 
with  them  the  silt  which  is  now  the  soil  of 
the  plain.  Tennyson  speaks  of  the  streams 

"  that  swift  or  slow 
Draw  down  aeonian  hills  and  sow 
The  dust  of  continents  to  be." 

The  Indo-Gangetic  plain  is  literally  the 
dust  of  mountains — the  product  of  river 
action  through  aeons  of  time.  The  process 
still  goes  on.  The  Indus  on  the  west  and 
the  Ganges  on  the  east  are  still  building  new 
land  and  pushing  their  deltas  into  the  sea. 
Since  Alexander  the  Great  embarked  his 
troops  at  the  mouth  of  the  Indus  on  his 
withdrawal  from  India,  the  whole  coast  line  of 
Sind  has  altered.  The  surface  of  the  present 
province  of  the  Punjab  is  scored  with  aban- 
doned river-beds.  The  five  great  rivers  of 
the  Punjab  have  repeatedly  changed  their 
courses  and  their  junctions  with  the  Indus. 
One  large  river,  which  gave  life  and  wealth 
to  the  desert  wastes  of  Rajputana  and  Sind, 
has  ceased  to  exist.  Hindu  mythology 


THE  COUNTRY  25 

ascribed  these  convulsions,  some  of  which 
were  due  to  earthquakes,  to  the  domestic 
dissensions  of  the  gods.  At  such  times  the 
rivers  and  mountains  were  lightly  flung  about. 
Legend  recounts  that  where  the  Jumna  and 
Ganges  meet  at  the  modern  city  of  Allahabad, 
they  are  joined  by  an  invisible  third.  It  is 
the  lost  river  of  Sind,  the  victim  of  an 
Olympian  brawl.  Modern  science  offers  a 
more  rational  if  more  prosaic  explanation 
of  physical  changes  in  the  universe. 

The  Indo-Gangetic  plain  is  in  many  respects 
the  most  important  feature  of  the  Indian 
continent.  It  contains  more  than  half  the 
total  population  of  India,  and  four-fifths  of 
its  wealth.  Geologically  a  single  plain,  its 
physical  conditions  are  very  diversified.  The 
western  or  Indus  half,  except  where  its 
northern  fringe  skirts  the  Himalaya  and 
draws  moisture  from  them,  is  arid  and  more 
or  less  rainless.  To  the  south  it  tails  off  in 
wastes,  shown  in  the  map  as  the  "  Thar  " 
or  Indian  desert.  At  its  best  the  Indus  plain 
is  a  grey,  treeless  region.  Save  in  the  river 
valleys  or  in  canal  tracts  the  dull  monotony 
of  the  formless  plain  is  unbroken.  But  there 
is  no  fault  to  be  found  with  the  soil,  and  the 
magic  wand  of  the  irrigation  engineer  is  now 
transforming  these  waste  spaces  into  green 
cornfields  and  prosperous  settlements.  The 
northern  fringe — if  fringe  is  an  adequate 


26  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

word  for  a  tract  varying  from  one  hundred 
to  two  hundred  miles  in  breadth — is  fertile 
and  habitable.  For  centuries  it  has  served 
as  the  highway  for  invaders  from  the  north. 
If  we  follow  the  road  from  Peshawur  to 
Rawalpindi,  Lahore,  and  onwards  to  Delhi, 
we  are  in  the  footsteps  of  every  empire- 
builder  who  has  conquered  northern  India. 
At  Delhi  we  strike  the  Jumna  river,  the 
most  westerly  tributary  of  the  Ganges,  and 
we  enter  the  Gangetic  plain.  The  rivers  now 
flow  east.  The  fertile,  alluvial  plain  broadens 
out.  The  country  as  we  go  east  wears  a 
more  comely  look.  It  is  greener  and  better 
wooded ;  closely  settled  and  carefully  tilled. 
Water  is  more  abundant  and  nearer  to  the 
surface.  The  air  has  lost  the  dryness  of  the 
desert,  and  is  softer  and  damper.  We  are 
now  in  Hindustan — "  the  place  of  the  Hindus" 
as  the  Mohammedan  historians  called  it ; 
the  heart  of  ancient  Indian  civilisation  ;  the 
"  middle-land  "  of  the  later  Vedic  hymns ; 
the  core  of  the  Mughal  empire.  Every  step 
eastwards  brings  us  nearer  to  the  holy  places 
and  famous  cities  of  Hinduism.  Muttra, 
Hardwar,  Ajudhia,  Benares,  Patna,  Gya — 
to  mention  a  few  only — are  to  the  Hindu 
what  Mecca  or  Baghdad  is  to  the  Musalman, 
Jerusalem  or  Rome  to  the  Christian.  Three 
or  four  hundred  miles  below  Benares  we 
reach  the  eastern  limit  of  Hindustan.  Imper- 


THE  COUNTRY  27 

ceptibly  it  merges  into  Bengal.  In  Hindustan 
the  average  rainfall  averages  thirty  to  forty 
inches  a  year,  increasing  towards  the  east. 
In  Bengal  a  rainfall  of  fifty  to  sixty  inches 
is  common,  and  in  eastern  Bengal  this  is 
exceeded.  The  air  is  now  languorous  and 
vapour-laden,  the  vegetation  luxuriant  and 
tropical.  The  firm,  grey  plain  of  wheat  and 
millets  and  sugar-cane  dotted  with  clumps  of 
park-like  trees  gives  place  to  rice  swamps 
and  bamboos,  palm  and  plantain.  The 
Ganges  after  its  junction  with  the  Brahma- 
putra becomes  a  sea.  The  whole  country 
is  now  a  network  of  creeks  and  streams. 
The  boat  takes  the  place  of  the  bullock-cart, 
the  waterways  are  the  roads.  In  this  torrid, 
steamy,  prolific  region  life  is  easy,  wants  are 
few.  It  is  the  home  of  a  vast  and  ever- 
increasing  population. 

Assam,  to  the  north  of  Bengal,  resembles 
the  latter  in  its  heavy  rainfall,  its  verdure, 
and  luxuriant  vegetation.  It  is  also  a  land 
of  hills,  and  where  it  abuts  on  the  Himalaya 
ranges  it  shelters  some  of  the  most  primitive 
and  savage  races  of  India.  But  its  title  to 
honour  is  the  magnificent  waterway  of  the 
Brahmaputra,  The  fertile  and  picturesque 
valley  through  which  this  river  flows  is  the 
seat  of  the  prosperous  tea  industry.  A  tangle 
of  rough  hills  separates  Assam  from  Burma. 
So  intricate  and  numerous  are  the  ranges  that 


28  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

no  highway,  much  less  a  railway,  has  yet  been 
made  to  connect  the  two  provinces.  Access  to 
Burma  from  India  is,  therefore,  by  the  sea.  The 
difficult  land  frontier  of  Burma  accounts  for  the 
complete  contrast  which  that  country  presents 
to  India  proper  in  race,  civilisation  and  religion. 
The  term  "  Indo-China  "  best  describes  it. 
Northern  Burma  is  a  mountainous  forest-clad 
region  with  noble  streams  and  valleys  of  great 
beauty.  The  Irrawaddy  far  down  its  course 
to  the  flats  of  lower  Burma  preserves  the 
charm  of  a  mountain-bred  river,  and  is  the 
tourist's  joy.  Its  delta  is  a  vast  rice  plain  as 
fertile  as  that  of  the  Nile. 

We  may  now  retrace  our  steps  to  Hindustan. 
To  the  south  of  the  Ganges  the  country  loses 
its  flat  and  alluvial  character,  and  rises  in 
a  series  of  rough  tablelands  towards  peninsular 
India.  In  many  parts  it  is  a  mere  mass  of 
valleys  and  stony  hills.  In  the  fertile  plains 
between  the  Ganges  and  the  Himalaya  man 
and  his  works  are  never  out  of  sight.  But 
these  rough  uplands  to  the  south  are  thinly 
inhabited.  They  constitute  a  strong  country, 
difficult  to  invade  or  hold  ;  and  because  of 
this  they  have  befriended  races  and  tribes 
which  had  no  chance  in  the  open  plains 
against  organised  force.  In  the  east  the 
Chota  Nagpur  plateau  shelters  the  Santals 
and  other  primitive  tribes  who  to  this  day 
use  the  bow  and  arrow.  To  the  west  extend 


THE  COUNTRY  29 

the  two  large  central  regions  known  as 
central  India  and  Rajputana,  which  for  the 
most  part  are  parcelled  out  among  native 
states.  In  central  India  the  plateau  country 
is  at  its  best.  As  it  trends  southwards  to  the 
Vindhya  hills  it  broadens  out  into  rolling 
downs  of  great  fertility.  Here  in  old  days 
was  the  famous  kingdom  of  Malwa,  long  a 
centre  of  ancient  Hindu  civilisation.  The 
splendour  of  its  capital  Ujjain  was  the 
favourite  theme  of  Hindu  poets.  West  of  cen- 
tral India  the  hills  and  deserts  of  Rajputana 
stretch  for  leagues  till  they  merge  in  the  great 
Indian  desert.  Rajputana  is  the  land  of  the 
Rajput  clans,  into  which  they  were  driven 
from  the  fertile  plains  of  Hindustan  by  the 
Muhammadan  armies.  Here  amid  the  hills 
and  sandy  wastes  they  founded  new  homes, 
and  were  never  completely  subjugated.  In 
the  extreme  west,  where  the  states  of  Jodhpur, 
Bikanir  and  Jaisalmir  lie,  the  soil,  says  a  local 
proverb,  grows  more  spears  than  ears  of  corn. 
"  One  horn  of  the  cow,"  says  another  proverb, 
alluding  to  the  precariousness  of  the  rainfall, 
"lies  within  the  rainy  zone  and  the  other 
without." 

The  Vindhya  hills  are  the  northern  boundary 
of  peninsular  India  or  the  Deccan.  A  con- 
fused mass  of  forest-clad  hills,  they  bar  the 
approaches  to  the  central  tablelands  of  the 
peninsula.  In  former  times  when  the  wood- 


80  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

lands  were  denser  and  the  country  roadless, 
a  military  expedition  into  southern  India 
was  a  serious  matter.  So  the  Muhammadan 
conquerors  of  Hindustan  found  it,  and  it  is 
easy  to  understand  why  the  south  had  a 
separate  history,  separate  dynasties  and 
kingdoms,  and  was  included  for  short  and 
transitory  periods  only  in  the  northern 
empire. 

The  topography  of  the  Deccan  is  altogether 
different  from  that  of  northern  India.  The 
vast  plain  that  stretches  from  the  Indus  to 
Calcutta  invited  easy  conquest  and  empire- 
building  ;  its  fertile  alluvial  soil  and  unfailing 
rivers  make  it  a  hive  of  industry  and  the  home 
of  a  dense  population.  The  Deccan,  as  a 
whole,  is  a  broken  and  rocky  country.  It  lent 
itself  to  the  establishment  of  separate  states, 
and  gave  protection  to  the  weak  against 
the  strong.  Accordingly  its  history  is  ex- 
tremely confusing.  It  is  a  record  of  many 
contemporaneous  dynasties,  engaged  in  end- 
ess  wars  of  aggression  or  defence. 

The  Deccan,  or  India  south  of  the  Vindhyas, 
may  be  described  as  a  tableland  of  very 
irregular  and  broken  surface,  with  a  general 
slope  from  west  to  east.  On  either  side  it  is 
buttressed  by  the  hills  known  respectively 
as  the  western  and  eastern  Ghats.  Ghat 
literally  means  a  flight  of  steps  or  landing 
stairs.  The  western  Ghats  are  a  formidable 


THE  COUNTRY  81 

barrier  between  the  strip  of  lowlands  fringing 
the  coast  and  the  interior  tableland.  They 
extend  in  an  unbroken  line  the  whole  length 
of  the  coast,  and  attain  an  average  height  of 
four  thousand  feet.  Their  influence  on  the 
climate  of  the  peninsula  is  great,  as  they 
intercept  and  break  the  monsoon-clouds  from 
the  Indian  ocean.  Their  western  face  and 
the  low  country  at  their  base  are  drenched 
with  torrential  rain  during  the  monsoon, 
while  the  plains  behind  are  comparatively 
rainless  and  arid.  Here  is  the  home  of  the 
formidable  Mahratta  race,  who  found  in  the 
wild  and  difficult  country  of  the  Ghats  a 
perfect  base  of  operations  against  the  Muham- 
madan  armies.  A  glance  at  the  map  will 
show  that  the  rivers  of  the  Deccan  take 
their  rise  in  the  western  Ghats  and  following 
the  general  slope  of  the  country  flow  in  an 
easterly  direction,  and  discharge  themselves 
into  the  bay  of  Bengal.  The  eastern  Ghats 
are  an  ill-defined  range  of  no  great  height, 
and  to  the  south  they  recede  from  the  coast, 
leaving  room  for  wide  stretches  of  fertile 
lowlands.  The  ancient  civilisation  of  southern 
India  was  centred  in  the  east  and  south  on 
the  great  rivers  and  the  lowlands,  and  has 
left  memorials  of  its  greatness  in  many  ruined 
capitals.  The  deltas  of  the  Godaveri  the 
Kishna  and  the  Cauveri  rivers  are  vast 
expanses  of  rice  fields,  and  their  prosperity  is 


32  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

secured  by  canal  irrigation  systems  rivalling 
that  of  the  delta  of  lower  Egypt.  In  the 
extreme  south  the  Malabar  and  Tan j  ore 
districts  are  second  to  none  in  India  in 
tropical  luxuriance  and  fertility. 

If  we  look  at  a  map  showing  the  present 
political  distribution  of  India  south  of  the 
Vindhyas,  two  large  tracts  coloured  yellow 
will  be  seen  lying  between  the  provinces 
of  Bombay  and  Madras.  These  two  tracts 
are  respectively  the  native  states  of  Hydera- 
bad and  Mysore.  In  the  extreme  south  there 
is  a  third  but  smaller  yellow  tract  containing 
the  states  of  Travancore  and  Cochin.  These 
three  tracts  are  instructive.  The  Dominions 
of  the  Nizam  of  Hyderabad,  to  use  the  official 
designation,  mark  the  southern  limits  of  the 
Mughal  empire.  Nizam  meant  viceroy,  and 
the  present  ruler  of  Hyderabad  is  the  lineal 
descendant  of  a  Muhammadan  noble  who 
governed  the  Deccan  on  behalf  of  the  Delhi 
emperor.  Mysore,  Travancore  and  Cochin 
are  ancient  Hindu  states.  Their  existence 
tells  us  that  the  country  south  of  the  Kishna 
river,  which  bounds  the  Nizam's  dominions 
on  the  south,  is  to  this  day  the  most  Hindu 
portion  of  India.  It  has  never,  save  for  a 
short  period  during  the  anarchy  of  the  eight- 
eenth century,  been  under  Muhammadan  rule. 
The  great  mass  of  the  population  are  of 
the  aboriginal  Dravidian  race,  and  speak 


THE  COUNTRY  88 

Dravidian  languages.  There  was  no  Aryan 
conquest,  and  though  there  was  Aryan 
immigration  there  was  no  general  diffusion 
of  Aryan  blood.  The  Brahmans  of  southern 
India,  who  represent  Aryan  culture  and  Aryan 
traditions,  are  a  race  apart. 

We  have  completed  our  survey  of  the 
Indian  continent.  It  has  shown  us  the  extent 
and  diversity  of  the  countries  included  in  the 
term  India,  and  the  numerous  races  which 
inhabit  it.  In  the  great  alluvial  plains  of  the 
north  we  found  that  the  aboriginal  races  have 
been  overborne  by  the  Aryan  and  the  Mu- 
hammadan  invader.  To  the  east  and  south 
these  influences  thin  out  as  we  leave  the 
plains  for  the  broken  country  of  central  India 
and  the  Deccan.  In  the  extreme  south  we 
find  that  the  aboriginal  race  and  their  lan- 
guages still  predominate.  We  end  our  journey 
in  the  oldest  corner  of  the  continent. 

A  word  or  two  may  be  said  about  the 
present  political  divisions  of  India.  The 
primary  division  is  into  British  India  and 
Native  States.  Of  the  Native  States  some 
account  will  be  given  in  a  later  section.  With 
few  and  unimportant  exceptions  they  occupy 
the  interior  of  the  continent  and  have  no  sea- 
board. We  see  in  this  the  special  feature  of 
the  British  settlement  in  India.  It  came  by 
way  of  the  sea  and  was  made  effective  by  a 
nation  deriving  its  strength  from  its  mastery 


34  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

of  the  ocean.  British  India  is  distributed 
into  eight  major  and  two  minor  provinces. 
The  two  latter — Beluchistan  and  the  North- 
Western  Frontier  Province — are  really  military 
outworks  on  the  further  side  of  the  Indus  river. 
Of  the  eight  major  provinces  the  three  oldest 
are  Madras,  Bombay  and  Bengal.  The  others 
have  been  gradually  formed  by  subdivision 
or  through  later  acquisitions.  With  the 
exception  of  Burma  no  province  represents  a 
natural  unit :  that  is  to  say,  they  do  not 
stand  for  differences  of  race  or  language,  or 
geographical  distinctions.  They  are  purely 
administrative  divisions  of  territory.  An 
Indian  province  is  not  what  we  mean  by  a 
nation,  though  it  tends  to  create  a  provincial 
spirit,  which  is  not  far  removed  from  the 
beginning  of  a  national  life. 


CHAPTER   II 

ITS    HISTORY 

T_flE  history  of  India  falls  into  three  main 
divisions ;  the  Hindu  period,  the  Muhammadan 
period,  and  the  period  of  the  establishment  of 
European  dominion. 

These  are  rough  divisions,  as  the  periods 
overlap  and  it  is  not  possible  to  define  them 
sharply  or  to  assign  dates  to  their  beginning  or 
ending.  But  they  serve  as  a  framework  and 
they  broadly  indicate  the  current  of  the  story 
of  India. 

Each  period  marks  the  invasion  of  India 
by  fresh  races  from  colder  climes,  and  the 
transfer  of  the  country  in  whole  or  in  part 
to  new  masters.  Some  persons  may  see  in 
this  the  tragedy  of  India.  But  a  more  hopeful 
and  a  better  view  is  to  regard  the  past  as  the 
passage  to  and  preparation  for  a  higher 
civilisation  and  a  better  ordered  political 
system  than  would  have  otherwise  been 
attainable. 

As  to  dates  the  Hindu  period  begins  in  a 
remote  and  unchronicled  antiquity.  It  opens 

B2  35 


86  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

with  the  migrations  of  the  Aryans  from  the 
plains  of  Persia  and  central  Asia  into  northern 
India,  and  their  conquest  of  the  aboriginal 
races.  These  events  occupied  a  large  space 
of  time  from  2000  B.C.  onwards,  but  the  first 
date  which  scholars  have  been  able  to  fix 
approximately  for  any  political  event  is 
600  B.C.  The  Muhammadan  period  may  be 
taken  to  run  from  about  A.D.  1000,  when 
Moslem  inroads  began  on  a  large  scale,  to 
about  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
when  Delhi  slipped  from  the  feeble  hands  of 
the  last  of  the  Mughal  emperors.  For  the 
third  period  the  battle  of  Plassey,  June  28, 
1757,  is  a  convenient  date.  That  battle, 
in  which  Clive  with  nine  hundred  Europeans 
and  two  thousand  sepoys  routed  the  army  of 
the  Nawab  of  Bengal,  is  usually  regarded  as 
the  beginning  of  British  supremacy  in  India. 
The  Hindu  Period. — When  we  say  that  the 
Hindu  period  of  Indian  history  opens  with 
the  settlement  of  Aryan  tribes  on  the  Indus 
and  its  branches,  we  do  not  mean  that  India 
had  no  earlier  past.  On  the  contrary  it  was 
inhabited  by  other  races,  and  the  history  of  the 
Aryans  in  India  is  that  of  the  subjugation  of 
these  races.  Something  will  be  said  about 
these  races  in  a  later  section.  Here  it  is 
sufficient  to  say  that  there  is  no  record  of  the 
pre-Aryan  days  of  India,  and  that  our 
knowledge  of  India  begins  with  the  Vedic 


ITS  HISTORY  37 

hymns.  From  these  hymns,  of  which  the 
earliest  are  in  the  collection  named  the  Rig 
Veda,  we  can  gather  a  good  deal  of  informa- 
tion about  the  people  who  used  them,  and 
their  social  condition.  They  had  already 
advanced  a  long  way  from  the  primitive  state. 
They  were  in  the  agricultural  stage,  rejoicing  in 
plough-lands,  horses,  cattle  and  pastures.  The 
family  was  the  unit  of  society,  and  the 
authority  of  the  father  supreme  within  it. 
"  There  were  no  temples,  and  no  idols  ;  each 
patriarch  of  a  family  lighted  the  sacrificial  fire 
on  his  own  hearth,  and  offered  milk  and  rice 
offerings  or  animals,  or  libations  of  the  soma 
juice  to  the  fire,  and  invoked  the  *  bright ' 
gods  for  blessings  and  health  and  wealth  for 
himself  and  his  children.  Chiefs  of  tribes 
were  kings,  and  had  professional  priests  to 
perform  sacrifices  and  utter  hymns  for  them ; 
but  there  was  no  priestly  caste  and  no  royal 
caste.  The  people  were  free,  enjoying  the 
freedom  which  belongs  to  vigorous  pas- 
toral and  agricultural  tribes."  The  late 
MR.  ROMESH  CHUNDER  DUTT,  from  whose 
history  of  Civilisation  in  Ancient  India 
this  passage  is  taken,  probably  idealised  the 
life  of  the  early  Aryan  settlers  in  India.  But 
we  shall  not  be  far  wrong  if  we  picture  these 
tribal  communities  as  not  unlike  the  Celtic 
and  Teutonic  tribes  from  whom  the  nations 
of  western  Europe  are  descended. 


38  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

As  the  tribes  spread  eastward  through 
and  beyond  the  "  land  of  the  five  rivers,"  they 
came  in  contact  with  the  aboriginal  races, 
and  from  this  point  the  story  of  India  begins. 
Essentially  it  is  the  story  of  the  gradual  pene- 
tration of  the  Aryan  tribes  into  countries 
already  occupied  by  other  races,  and  of  their 
intermixture  with  these  races  in  varying 
degrees.  As  will  be  seen  later  on,  the  caste 
and  religious  system  of  India  is  the  result  of 
this  imperfect  fusion.  It  seems  probable 
that  the  Aryan  settlements  in  the  Punjab 
were  made  with  small  intermixture  of  race, 
as  there  is  little  aboriginal  blood  discernible 
in  that  province  to-day.  The  Sutlej  river 
for  some  time  must  have  been  their  frontier. 
Beyond  it  the  land  was  possessed  by  "  fiends  " 
or  "  black-skins,"  as  they  are  termed  in  the 
hymns.  With  libations  poured  over  the 
sacrificial  fire  the  gods  are  asked  to  give 
victory  over  these  to  the  "  noble  "  or  "  Aryan  " 
men  (the  word  has  the  double  meaning). 
The  "  colour  "  distinction  thus  came  on  the 
stage  very  early.  As  the  original  mean- 
ing of  the  Sanskrit  word  "caste"  is 
"  colour,"  the  origin  of  this  famous  institution 
is  clear. 

The  advance  of  the  Aryan  tribes  from  the 
Punjab  to  the  Gangetic  plain  and  their 
conquest  of  the  country  between  the  Himalaya 
and  the  Vindhya  mountains  must  have 


ITS  HISTORY  39 

occupied  some  centuries.  The  fact  is  vaguely 
indicated  in  the  changed  geography  of  the 
later  Vedas,  which  now  refer  to  the  country 
between  the  Ganges  and  the  Jumna ;  and  it 
also  appears  in  the  recognition  given  to  the 
caste  system  in  these  later  books.  But  we 
are  left  to  conjecture  the  actual  stages  of 
the  migration.  What  seems  certain  is  that 
as  the  Aryan  settlers  went  east,  they  took 
wives  from  the  short  dark  races  whose  lands 
they  had  seized,  and  whom  they  had  made 
serfs  and  domestic  drudges.  Some  such  ex- 
planation is  required  to  account  for  the  change 
in  physique,  type  and  language  of  the  popula- 
tion east  of  the  Punjab  ;  and  it  is  implied  in 
the  later  Vedas,  and  in  the  religious  books 
called  Brahmanas  which  were  composed  at  this 
time.  Under  priestly  guidance  the  men  of 
Aryan  blood  became  the  "  twice-born  "  classes 
— the  Kshattriya  or  warrior  class,  the  Brah- 
man or  priest,  the  Vaisya  or  husbandman ; 
while  a  fourth  class,  the  Sudra,  was  constituted 
for  the  aborigines  and  half-bloods.  The 
Sudra  had  no  share  in  the  sacrificial  worship 
which  the  Brahmans  conducted.  His  duty 
was  defined  to  be  to  serve  meekly  the  other 
classes. 

Society  while  remaining  tribal  in  the  lands 
between  the  Ganges  and  the  Jumna  became 
also  territorial.  The  clansmen  held  their 
lands  in  family  groups,  and  the  head  of  the 


40  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

clan  became  also  its  territorial  chief  or 
raja,  with  a  right  to  receive  tithe  of  the 
produce  of  the  land.  Outside  the  cultivating 
group  or  brotherhood,  men  of  Sudra  caste 
performed  various  offices  for  the  community, 
and  had  their  allotted  share  of  the  grain  heap. 
In  essentials  this  is  the  village  system  to-day  in 
northern  India.  There  were  wars  among  the 
tribes  and  grouping  of  tribes  under  leaders. 
One  great  war  was  celebrated  in  later  ages  in 
a  vast  poem  known  as  the  Mahabharata. 
It  is  full  of  fabulous  incidents  and  heavenly 
machinery.  The  war  and  the  poem  are 
respectively  the  Indian  equivalents  of  the 
Trojan  war  and  the  Iliad.  There  is  another 
vast  epic,  the  Ramayana,  or  the  adventures  of 
Prince  Rama,  of  about  the  same  period. 
To  this  day  these  ancient  poems,  reset  in 
modern  vernaculars,  delight  millions  of  Indian 
peasants. 

In  peninsular  India  to  the  south  of  the 
Vindhya  mountains  the  spread  of  Aryan 
civilisation  was  slow.  The  races  there,  which 
are  known  under  the  general  term  Dravidian, 
were  powerful  and  civilised  communities. 
Here  it  was  less  a  case  of  conquest  than  of 
gradual  diffusion  of  Aryan  leaders  and  Aryan 
social  and  religious  ideas.  Some  Aryan  states 
were  founded,  and  Brahmanical  doctrines  and 
the  Brahman  priesthood  became  supreme. 
But  to  this  day  the  mass  of  the  people  in 


ITS  HISTORY  41 

southern   India   show  little  trace  of  Aryan 
blood  and  speak  non-Aryan  languages. 

About  1000  B.C.  the  tribal  and  territorial 
chief-ships  in  the  Gangetic  plain  began  to 
give  place  to  larger  states.  How  the  change 
came  about  we  do  not  know,  but  probably  the 
feuds  of  the  clans  gave  openings  to  ambitious 
and  successful  chiefs  to  found  kingdoms. 
The  tribal  system  with  its  territorial  rajas 
was  not  destroyed,  but  it  was  constantly 
overborne.  When  Alexander  the  Great  in- 
vaded India  in  326  B.C.  he  found  independent 
tribes  in  parts  of  the  country  and  powerful 
kingdoms  elsewhere.  The  Indian  monarch 
Porus,  whom  he  defeated  at  the  passage  of 
the  Jhelum,  had  a  large  array  of  horse,  foot, 
chariots  and  war-elephants.  There  were 
reports  of  a  still  larger  kingdom  called  Magadha 
in  the  Gangetic  piain.  Its  capital  was  on  the 
site  of  the  present  city  of  Patna.  Twenty-five 
years  later  this  kingdom  grew  into  an  Indian 
empire,  which  stretched  from  sea  to  sea,  and 
extended  beyond  the  Afghan  mountains  to  the 
confines  of  Persia.  The  founder  was  Chand- 
ragupta  Mauriya,  and  the  empire  he  founded 
lasted  nearly  one  hundred  and  fifty  years. 
At  its  zenith  it  was  the  paramount  power 
throughout  northern  India  and  in  the  greater 
part  of  southern  India.  In  magnitude  it 
must  have  been  as  extensive  as  the  present 
Indian  dominions  of  the  Crown. 


42  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

The  Mauriyan  empire  (820-180  B.C.)  is 
interesting  for  two  reasons.  It  produced  the 
famous  emperor-monk  Asoka,  and  it  was  the 
forerunner  and  type  of  similar  attempts  to 
found  a  universal  empire  in  India.  Asoka  is 
known  to  us  through  his  edicts  on  pillars 
and  rocks,  enjoining  on  his  subjects  the  obser- 
vance of  the  moral  law  taught  by  Gautama 
Buddha  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  before. 
Through  Asoka's  efforts  Buddhism  became  the 
official  religion  of  India  for  several  centuries, 
and  was  carried  to  China  and  Ceylon.  Asoka 
is  one  of  the  great  figures  in  Indian  history. 
In  his  piety  and  in  his.  zeal  he  is  the  Indian 
Alfred  the  Great. 

The  sudden  appearance  of  a  great  military 
empire  in  India  in  the  third  century  B.C. 
excites  surprise.  We  are  tempted  to  ask 
whence  came  the  idea  and  the  ground  plan. 
It  is  a  reasonable  conjecture  that  the  idea 
and  the  plan  were  borrowed  from  Persia. 
We  have  a  minute  description  of  Chand- 
ragupta's  court  and  administration  from  the 
Greek  ambassador,  Megasthenes,  who  resided 
there  for  a  time.  His  account  of  the  barbaric 
splendour  of  the  court,  of  the  monarch's 
state  and  female  guards  when  he  went  abroad, 
of  his  huge  standing  army,  of  the  division 
of  the  empire  into  provinces,  of  the  inspectors 
or  newsagents  who  reported  on  the  action  of 
the  provincial  governors  to  the  king — all  these 


ITS  HISTORY  43 

are  features  of  the  Persian  monarchy.  The 
Persian  empire,  before  its  overthrow  by 
Alexander,  was  the  great  fact  in  the  East. 
It  dominated  all  men's  minds  by  its  magni- 
tude. Its  elaborate  and  highly  centralised 
system  was  the  last  word  of  the  East  on 
the  art  of  government.  It  rested  on  three 
principles  :  the  kingly  power  with  military 
force  at  its  command  ;  a  host  of  trained  civil 
officials  ;  and  strict  control  from  the  centre. 
"  It  erred  perhaps,"  says  a  recent  writer, 
"  on  the  side  of  centralisation  ;  but  then  the 
East  does  not  understand,  and  never  has 
understood,  anything  but  centralisation  in 
government."  And  he  makes  a  remark 
which  is  as  applicable  to  Indian  as  to  Persian 
empires,  that  "  it  was  at  the  centre  of  the 
empire,  in  the  reigning  family  itself,  that  the 
decay  set  in  which  corrupted  the  whole." 
This  dazzling  Persian  model  was  the  envy  and 
aim  of  every  successful  military  adventurer. 
It  was  familiar  to  India,  as  a  large  part 
of  the  north-west  of  India  had  before 
Alexander's  conquests  been  annexed  by  the 
Persian  kings.  It  is  thus  not  surprising 
that  a  great  military  empire  should  have  been 
formed  in  India  in  the  years  300-200  B.C. 
in  close  imitation  of  the  Persian  system. 

When  the  Mauriyan  empire  fell  there  was 
confusion  for  several  centuries.  Central  Asia 
found  the  passes  into  India  open  and  made  use 


44  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

of  the  opportunity.  Tribes  of  Scythians 
passed  down  the  Indus  valley  and  into  the 
western  Punjab,  and  founded  principalities 
which  lasted  many  years.  A  powerful  Turkish 
dynasty,  known  as  the  Kushan  Kings, 
established  themselves  in  Afghanistan  during 
the  first  three  centuries  of  our  era,  and  con- 
quered northern  India  as  far  east  as  Benares. 
The  Turkish  race  has  always  shown  a  readiness 
to  accept  the  culture  and  religions  of  more 
civilised  nations,  and  this  trait  is  very  marked 
in  these  Kushan  kings.  From  India  they 
accepted  Buddhism,  but  they  added  elements 
of  Brahmanism,  and  placed  Buddha  among 
the  great  gods  of  Hindu  mythology.  On 
their  coins  they  used  the  Greek  alphabet 
to  express  Indian  royal  titles,  and  Greek 
influence  is  manifest  in  the  remarkable  series  of 
sculptures  which  they  left  behind  them  in  the 
country  about  Peshawar.  The  Gandhara 
sculptures,  as  they  are  called,  are  concerned 
with  the  adoration  of  Buddha,  and  with 
traditional  incidents  in  his  life  and  death ; 
and  these  purely  Indian  ideas  are  expressed 
under  unmistakably  Greek  forms.  Sculp- 
tures of  this  type  have  been  found  in  the 
Gangetic  plain,  and  are  one  of  many  proofs 
of  the  extent  to  which  India  from  earliest 
times  has  been  under  foreign  influences. 

The  fourth  and  fifth  centuries  of  our  era  are 
justly  regarded  as  the  golden  age  of  Hinduism. 


ITS  HISTORY  45 

The  Aryan  clans  in  the  Gangetic  plain  were 
again  brought  together  under  a  strong  and 
vigorous  monarchy,  and  the  political  unity 
of  India  was  again  nearly  attained.  The 
Gupta  kings,  as  they  were  called  from  their 
tribal  name,  revived  the  glories  of  the  ancient 
kingdom  of  Magadha,  and  for  one  hundred 
and  fifty  years  held  undisputed  sway  in 
upper  India  and  beyond.  We  have  a  pleasing 
picture  of  India  in  these  days  from  the  journal 
of  a  pious  Buddhist  pilgrim  from  China. 
He  found  a  peaceful  and  contented  population 
under  a  lenient  and  paternal  government.  He 
was  impressed  by  the  mildness  of  the  criminal 
law,  by  the  freedom  of  travel  permitted  to  all, 
and  by  the  numerous  signs  of  wealth  and 
prosperity.  This  picture  is  confirmed  by 
other  evidence.  There  was  progress  not 
only  in  material  wealth,  but  in  architecture 
and  letters.  In  religion  Brahmanism,  that  is 
to  say  the  sacrificial  worship  of  Siva  Vishnu 
and  other  Hindu  deities,  the  doctrine  of 
transmigration  of  souls,  the  social  pre-eminence 
and  sanctity  of  Brahmans,  gained  ground  on 
and  finally  supplanted  Buddhism.  Buddhism 
had  become  formal  and  ceremonial  without 
becoming  popular.  It  had  lost  its  first  force 
as  a  way  of  life,  as  a  solution  of  the  riddle  of 
existence.  It  was  trivial  and  tedious,  exalt- 
ing the  monastic  habit  and  visiting  with 
severe  penalties  the  taking  of  animal,  even 


46    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

insect,  life.  It  was  no  match  for  the  new 
Brahman  ism,  which,  departing  from  the 
"  bright "  nature  deities  and  the  simple 
worship  of  the  Vedic  hymns,  laid  itself  out 
to  pander  to  the  terrors  and  the  appetite  for 
the  marvellous  of  primitive  man.  It  peopled 
the  universe  with  fierce  and  terrible  gods 
and  goddesses,  and  invented  monstrous  and 
blood-curdling  legends  about  its  creation  and 
its  future.  It  borrowed  from  the  aboriginal 
races  their  darkest  myths,  their  grossest 
superstitions,  their  most  dreaded  and  degraded 
deities ;  and  it  compounded  these  into  the 
most  fantastic  and  bewildering  system  of 
theology  and  metaphysics  that  the  world 
has  ever  known.  This  process  went  on  long 
after  the  Gupta  age,  but  its  beginnings  date 
from  it. 

Even  in  the  golden  age  of  the  Guptas  India 
could  not  shake  off  her  fate.  Political  unity 
was  attained  only  to  vanish.  This  time  the 
blow  was  delivered  by  a  new  enemy.  Early 
in  the  fifth  century  a  terrible  race,  the  Huns, 
under  pressure  of  war  or  famine,  moved 
eastwards  and  westwards  from  the  central 
table-land  of  Asia.  One  horde  burst  like  a 
tempest  on  Europe,  producing  Attila,  the 
"  scourge  of  God."  The  other  overwhelmed 
India.  The  Gupta  empire  went  down  in  the 
storm  about  A.D.  480.  After  that  event 
prolonged  darkness  falls  upon  India.  It 


ITS  HISTORY  47 

lifts  for  a  few  years  in  the  seventh  century. 
By  that  time  the  Huns  had  been  absorbed 
or  broken  into  petty  kingships,  and  we  have 
accounts  of  the  rise  of  another  Hindu  empire 
in  northern  India  with  Kananj  (now  a  desolate 
site  not  far  from  Cawnpur)  as  its  capital.  But 
it  speedily  broke  up,  and  with  it  went  the  last 
constructive  effort  of  Hinduism  in  upper  India. 
Henceforth  neither  in  upper  nor  in  southern 
India  was  there  any  successful  attempt  to 
reach  political  unity  or  to  found  permanent 
nation-states.  In  fact,  as  time  went  on,  the 
forces  making  for  disintegration  and  anarchy 
multiplied  and  increased  in  strength. 

One  of  the  signs  of  this  is  the  rise  of  Rajput 
kingdoms  and  chiefships.  The  internal  feuds 
and  migrations  of  the  great  Rajput  clans 
make  up  the  confused  and  fragmentary 
history  of  the  centuries  between  the  fall  of 
the  Gupta  empire  and  the  coming  of  the 
Muhammadans.  We  find  them  established 
in  political  power  not  only  in  what  is  now 
central  India  and  Rajputana  but  also  through- 
out the  Punjab  and  the  Gangetic  plain.  We 
do  not  exactly  know  how  the  Rajput  clan 
grew  out  of  the  Aryan  family.  When  the 
Rajputs  first  appear  in  history,  they  are 
powerful  tribal  groups,  occupying  more  or  less 
extensive  tracts  of  country,  and  claiming 
descent  from  the  sun  or  moon  or  from  some 
mythical  ancestor  of  princely  rank.  They 


48    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

were  constantly  engaged  in  internal  feuds, 
and  in  efforts  to  increase  their  tribal  lands  at 
the  expense  of  their  neighbours.  The 
disappearance  of  the  Gupta  empire  and  the 
confusion  caused  by  the  irruption  of  the  Huns 
gave  an  opportunity  to  the  most  powerful 
clans  to  form  independent  kingdoms.  We 
find  accordingly  in  the  tenth  century  Rajput 
houses  ruling  not  only  in  Rajputana  where 
they  exist  to-day,  but  in  all  the  great  cities 
of  northern  and  western  India.  The  Rajputs 
had,  as  they  still  have,  the  virtues  and  the 
weaknesses  of  clansmen.  They  were  brave 
and  chivalrous ;  devoted  to  their  clan  and 
chief.  But  beyond  their  chief  their  loyalty 
did  not  go.  The  chiefs  might  temporarily 
combine  against  an  external  enemy ;  but 
their  family  pride  and  jealous  temper  made 
permanent  union  impossible.  These  defects 
were  fatal  to  the  Hindu  cause  when  the  wave 
of  Moslem  invasion  broke  over  the  country. 

The  Muhammadan  Period. — It  would  be 
idle  to  speculate  as  to  what  the  future  ol  India 
would  have  been,  had  there  been  no  Moslem 
conquest.  When  the  nomad  races  of  central 
Asia  embraced  the  creed  of  Islam,  the  invasion 
and  subjugation  of  India  became  a  certainty. 
The  Muhammadan  religion  gave  to  these  wild 
races  precisely  the  stimulus,  the  ardour  and 
the  bond  of  unity  that  the  enterprise  required. 
They  became  a  brotherhood  of  believers,  the 


ITS  HISTORY  49 

elect  of  God,  whose  mission  it  was  to  win 
the  lands  and  the  goods  of  the  heathen  by 
the  sword,  and  to  establish  Islam  throughout 
the  world.  A  spirit  of  adventure  and  religious 
zeal  made  them  irresistible  against  the 
suspicious  and  divided  Indian  races.  What 
they  lacked  in  numbers  was  more  than  made 
up  in  solidarity  of  purpose  and  fiery  zeal. 
Moreover  India  was  a  rich  prey.  Its  wealth 
to  the  hungry  nomads  of  the  steppes  seemed 
fabulous.  It  attracted  to  the  ranks  of  the 
invaders  every  bold  and  needy  soldier  of 
fortune  in  Asia.  The  plunder  of  India  was  a 
magnet  that  never  ceased  to  attract  so  long  as 
the  passes  leading  down  to  the  plains  could 
be  forced.  No  sooner  had  one  set  of  invaders 
established  themselves  in  the  rich  centres  of 
India  than  they  were  called  on  to  defend  their 
new  possessions  against  fresh  hordes  from  the 
north.  For  five  hundred  years,  reckoning 
from  A.D.  1000,  successive  hosts  of  fierce  and 
greedy  Turks,  Afghans,  and  Mongols  trod 
upon  one  another's  heels  and  fought  for 
mastery  in  India.  At  the  end  of  that  time, 
Babar  the  Turk  founded  in  1526  the  Mughal 
empire ;  thenceforward  for  two  hundred 
years  the  passes  into  India  were  closed  and  in 
the  keeping  of  his  capable  successors. 

The  subjugation  of  India  by  Moslem  invaders 
was  thus  a  gradual  and  protracted  affair. 
The  first  comers  were  Arabs,  who  founded 


50  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

dynasties  in  Sind  and  Multan  as  early  as  800. 
But  their  conquests  did  not  extend  and  had 
merely  a  local  effect.  About  1000  the  terror 
came.  By  that  time  the  Tartar  races  had 
been  brought  into  the  fold  of  Islam,  and  the 
Turks,  the  most  capable  of  these  races,  had 
started  on  the  career  which  in  the  west  ended 
in  their  establishment  at  Constantinople.  A 
Turkish  chieftain  founded  a  small  kingdom 
at  Ghazni  in  the  heart  of  the  Afghan  hills. 
In  997  his  son  Mahmud  descended  upon  India. 
His  title  "  the  Idol-breaker "  describes  the 
man.  Year  by  year  he  swept  over  the  plains 
of  India,  capturing  cities  and  castles,  throwing 
down  idols  and  temples,  slaughtering  the 
heathen  and  proclaiming  the  faith  of  Muham- 
mad. Each  year  he  returned  with  vast  spoils 
to  Ghazni,  which  he  enriched  until  it  became 
the  wonder  of  the  East.  The  Punjab  he 
annexed,  and  under  his  descendants  it  became 
a  Muhammadan  kingdom.  In  course  of  time 
the  kingdom  of  Ghazni  was  swallowed  up  by 
the  neighbouring  and  kindred  state  of  Ghor, 
which  produced  in  Muhammad  Ghori  a  zealot 
of  the  same  type  and  temper  as  Mahmud  the 
**  Idol-breaker."  Like  Mahmud  he  had  no 
wish  to  establish  himself  in  India,  and  preferred 
his  mountain  home.  But  for  thirty  years 
(1175-1206)  he  raided  India  as  the  land  of  the 
infidel,  carrying  his  banners  as  far  as  Bengal 
and  overwhelming  the  Rajput  chivalry  in 


ITS  HISTORY  51 

battle.  Returning  from  one  of  these  raids 
he  was  slain  on  the  banks  of  the  Indus.  His 
Indian  possessions  passed  into  the  hands  of 
his  ablest  general,  a  slave  who,  in  Turkish 
fashion,  had  been  raised  to  supreme  command. 
India  now  saw  a  Muhammadan  king  estab- 
lished at  Delhi.  The  dynasty  thus  founded 
was  known  as  the  Slave  Kings. 

We  may  therefore  take  1206  as  the  date 
of  the  permanent  establishment  of  the 
Muhammadan  predominance  in  India.  At 
first  this  predominance  was  confined  to 
northern  India,  with  Delhi  as  the  centre.  The 
Slave  Kings  were  merely  successful  conquerors, 
and  when  they  ceased  to  be  strong  and 
capable  they  made  way  for  others.  Turks, 
Afghans  and  Mongols  jostled  each  other  for 
lands,  retainers  and  power.  There  were 
constant  rebellions  and  murders,  and  the 
throne  of  Delhi  repeatedly  changed  hands 
by  force  or  fraud.  Five  dynasties  and 
thirty-four  kings  followed  each  other  in  the 
course  of  three  hundred  years.  Other  adven- 
turers carved  out  kingdoms  for  themselves 
both  in  northern  India  and  south  of  the 
Narbada.  The  Rajput  clans  withdrew  from 
the  central  plain  of  Hindustan  to  the  hills 
and  the  desert,  where  they  stubbornly  kept 
the  Muhammadans  at  bay.  In  the  Muhamma- 
dan kingdoms  Hinduism,  though  prostrate, 
was  still  alive  and  conscious.  The  Hindus 


52    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

vastly  predominated  in  numbers,  in  intellect, 
and  in  the  arts  of  peace,  and  the  Muhamma- 
dans  were  as  a  camp  of  rude  armed  men, 
dependent  upon  the  inhabitants  of  the  country 
for  the  requirements  of  civil  life.  The  con- 
querors and  the  conquered  never  completely 
fused,  but  they  came  in  time  to  know  each  other 
better,  and  the  former  found  the  latter  too 
useful  to  think  of  exterminating  them,  if  that 
had  been  possible.  Converts  continued  to  be 
added  to  the  faith,  but  ordinarily  the  induce- 
ments were  pacific.  The  wives  of  the 
conquerors  were  often  of  Indian  blood,  and 
the  Indian  Musulman  was  no  longer  pure 
Turk  or  Afghan.  Save  for  creed  he  was  often 
of  the  soil.  The  spell  of  India  had  begun  to 
work.  By  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century  the 
Delhi  kingdom  was  distracted  and  effete, 
and  the  other  Moslem  kingdoms  were  not  in 
much  better  case.  Once  more  was  India  ripe 
for  the  spoiler's  hand.  The  spoiler  appeared 
in  Babar,  the  founder  of  the  Mughal  empire. 

Babar,  though  called  the  "  Mughal  "  or 
"  Mongol,"  was  really  a  Turk.  He  belonged 
to  the  great  house  of  Timur.  After  many 
adventures,  which  he  recounts  in  his  memoirs, 
he  possessed  himself  of  the  kingdom  of  Kabul. 
From  that  spring-board  in  1526  he  descended 
upon  India.  Two  battles — one  with  the 
Muhammadan  rulers  of  Delhi  and  another 
against  the  combined  forces  of  the  Rajput 


ITS  HISTORY  53 

clans — won  him  the  whole  of  northern  India. 
But  for  him  India  had  no  charms,  save  its 
wealth.  "  Hindustan,"  he  says  in  his  memoirs, 
"is  a  country  that  has  few  pleasures  to 
recommend  it.  The  country  and  towns  are 
extremely  ugly.  The  people  are  not  hand- 
some. The  chief  excellency  of  Hindustan 
is  that  it  is  a  big  country  with  plenty  of  gold 
and  silver."  He  was  busy  collecting  gold 
and  silver  and  remitting  it  to  his  Kabul  home 
when  he  died  in  his  garden-palace  at  Agra  in 
1530. 

The  Mughal  empire  that  Babar  founded 
was  of  the  ordinary  type  of  Asiatic  despotisms. 
It  was  irresponsible  personal  government. 
For  India  it  meant  the  substitution  of  a  new 
set  of  conquerors  for  those  already  in  occupa- 
tion. But  the  new  comers  brought  with 
them  the  vigour  of  the  north — they  came 
from  the  plains  of  the  Oxus  beyond  the  Kabul 
hills — and  they  drew  an  unlimited  supply 
of  recruits  from  the  finest  fighting  races  of 
Asia.  In  physical  strength  and  hardihood 
they  were  like  the  Norsemen  and  Normans  of 
Europe.  Babar  swam  every  river  that  he 
crossed  on  his  road  to  Delhi.  The  hardest 
march  through  the  winter  snows  of  Kabul 
left  him  vivacious  and  untired.  Notwith- 
standing the  enervating  climate  of  India  and 
the  luxury  and  dissipation  of  the  Mughal 
court  his  successors  to  the  sixth  generation 


54  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

were  all  men  of  masculine  fibre  and  vigorous 
intelligence.  They  were  no  barbarians,  though 
the  Tartar  strain  was  seen  in  their  anger  and 
their  punishments.  They  were  read  in  the 
literature  of  Persia,  and  their  fine  taste  is 
seen  in  the  splendid  buildings  of  Agra  and 
Delhi.  With  the  one  exception  of  the  em- 
peror Aurangzeb  they  were  not  bigots.  The 
creed  of  Islam  sat  lightly  on  them.  The 
greatest  of  them,  the  emperor  Akbar,  was 
greatly  drawn  to  Hindu  mysticism,  and  tried 
to  found  a  common  religion  for  men  of  every 
race  and  creed,  with  himself  as  high  priest. 
The  others,  Aurangzeb  excepted,  were  content 
to  leave  the  infidel  to  his  idols,  so  long  as  he 
paid  his  taxes  and  gave  no  trouble.  The 
empire  rested  on  a  truce  between  the 
religion  of  the  conquering  minority  and 
that  of  the  conquered  majority.  The  policy 
of  toleration  was  devised  by  the  emperor 
Akbar,  who  sealed  it  by  marrying  a  Rajput 
princess  and  by  admitting  the  Rajput 
chiefs  to  high  office.  His  successors,  till 
Aurangzeb,  who  were  half- Raj  puts  by  blood, 
had  the  good  sense  to  maintain  it.  Aurang- 
zeb, whose  mother  was  a  Persian  lady,  was  a 
reversion  to  the  strictest  and  most  intolerant 
form  of  Islam.  He  was  as  strong  and  capable 
as  any  of  his  race,  but  in  him  their  great 
qualities  were  misdirected.  He  spent  himself 
and  his  empire  in  vain  efforts  to  stamp 


ITS  HISTORY  55 

out  Hinduism.  He  alienated  the  Rajputs 
who  had  now  become  the  chief  military  prop 
of  the  throne,  and  he  kindled  in  the  Mahratta 
peasantry  of  southern  India  a  racial  hatred 
that  gathered  them  for  a  time  almost  into  a 
nation.  There  is  no  greater  tragedy  in  Indian 
history  than  the  exhaustion  and  swift  fall  of 
the  empire  which  his  misguided  policy  brought 
about. 

From  the  invasion  of  Babar  to  the  death  of 
Aurangzeb  (1707)  was  a  period  of  one  hundred 
and  eighty  years.  During  this  time  the  empire 
remained,  as  it  began,  a  rule  of  foreigners. 
Though  Rajputs  were  taken  into  the  military 
service  of  the  state  and  Hindu  scribes  and 
financiers  employed  in  civil  offices,  the 
administration  was  essentially  foreign  and 
Muhammadan.  The  country  was  parcelled  out 
into  military  commands,  and  the  commanders 
imported  great  numbers  of  men  from  beyond 
the  mountains.  In  this  way  Muhammadan 
supremacy  was  established,  the  Muhammadan 
population  grew,  and  to  this  day  the  effects  are 
seen  in  the  distribution  of  the  Indian  popula- 
tion into  two  great  camps,  as  it  were,  divided 
by  religion,  by  traditions  of  government,  and 
to  a  large  extent  by  nationality. 

The  fall  of  the  empire  was  brought  about, 
as  has  been  said,  by  the  rise  of  the  Mahrattas. 
The  Mahrattas  were  a  rough  and  turbulent 
Hindu  folk,  inhabiting  the  difficult  and  broken 


56  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

country  of  the  western  Ghats  and  the  Deccan 
table-land.  It  was  Aurangzeb's  ambition 
to  conquer  their  overlords,  the  Muhamma- 
dan  kings  of  the  Deccan.  In  the  long 
warfare  that  resulted  in  the  destruction 
of  these  kingdoms,  the  Mahrattas  found 
their  opportunity.  They  became  freebooting 
companies  under  daring  captains.  They  grew 
in  strength,  defied  the  Mughal  armies,  wasting 
the  country,  cutting  off  supplies  and  stragglers, 
and  everywhere  levying  tribute.  On  Aurang- 
zeb's death  the  empire  fell  to  pieces,  and  in  the 
general  anarchy  the  Mahrattas  for  a  few 
years  became  the  strongest  power  in  India. 
From  pillage  their  leaders,  under  the  guidance 
of  astute  Brahman  councillors  who  became 
hereditary  ministers  under  the  title  of  Peshwa, 
now  soared  to  dreams  of  empire.  But  they 
forgot  one  thing.  The  fall  of  the  Mughal  empire 
had  opened  the  passes  leading  into  India. 
A  Persian  army  desolated  the  Punjab  and 
sacked  Delhi,  and  after  the  Persian  an  Afghan 
host  swept  down  from  Kabul  and  seized  the 
imperial  city.  Baulked  of  their  prey,  un- 
willing to  leave  it,  yet  afraid  to  strike, 
the  Mahrattas  entrenched  themselves  on  the 
famous  plain  of  Pannipat.  With  retreat 
cut  off  and  starvation  in  sight,  they  were 
forced  to  give  battle  to  the  Afghans  (1761). 
In  the  rout  which  followed  their  only  real 
chance  of  an  Indian  empire  vanished.  They 


ITS  HISTORY  57 

withdrew  in  hot  haste  to  the  Deccan ;  and 
when  after  some  years  they  ventured  to  return 
to  northern  India,  a  new  power  had  arisen, 
which  was  destined  to  wrest  from  them  the 
broken  dominion  of  the  Mughals. 

The  British  Period. — The  beginnings  of 
British  rule  in  India  date  from  1600,  when 
the  East  India  Company  was  founded  in 
London.  It  was  a  company  of  merchants  for 
trade  with  the  East  Indies.  It  established 
trading  stations,  or  "  factories  "  as  they  were 
called,  at  various  places  on  the  Indian  coasts 
with  the  permission  of  the  Mughal  government. 
There  it  found  rivals  in  the  Portuguese,  the 
Dutch,  and  finally  the  French.  Space  will  not 
permit  us  to  trace  the  successive  steps  by  which 
the  English  Company  overcame  these  rivals, 
and  from  being  a  trading  association  became 
a  political  power.  But  speaking  generally  the 
causes  were  two  :  the  superior  sea-power  of 
England  in  its  international  struggles  with 
France  and  other  nations ;  and  the  misrule 
and  anarchy  everywhere  existing  in  India  on 
the  collapse  of  the  Mughal  empire.  To  the 
first  cause  it  was  due  that  the  Company's 
severe  struggle  with  the  French  in  Madras 
during  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century 
terminated  in  its  favour  ;  the  French  lost  the 
command  of  the  sea,  and  with  it  the  routes  to 
India.  The  second  made  it  necessary  for  the 
Company  to  protect  its  settlements  against 


38  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

the  disorderly  native  governments  which 
were  scrambling  for  power.  To  do  this  it 
maintained  European  troops  and  raised  native 
levies.  In  1756  an  upstart  Nawab  of  Bengal 
drove  the  Company  out  of  Calcutta  and 
brought  about  the  death  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty-three  European  men  and  women  in 
the  "  black  hole."  The  Company  retaliated  by 
routing  the  Nawab  on  the  field  of  Plassey, 
and  setting  up  in  his  place  another  and  more 
amenable  potentate.  From  this  point  further 
advance  was  easy  and  inevitable.  In  1764 
the  Company  came  into  collision  with  the 
kingdom  of  Oudh,  another  fragment  of  the 
shattered  Mughal  empire.  The  Nawab  of 
Oudh  was  badly  beaten  at  the  battle  of  Buxar. 
The  battle  had  important  consequences.  The 
fugitive  Mughal  emperor  sought  the  Com- 
pany's protection,  and  in  return  assigned  to  it 
the  administration  of  the  great  and  rich 
province  of  Bengal.  The  Company  was  now 
definitely  launched  on  a  political  career. 

From  Plassey  to  the  Indian  mutiny  there 
was  an  interval  of  exactly  one  hundred  years. 
The  first  fifty  years  were  the  most  critical,  and 
saw  the  greatest  changes  in  the  fortunes  and 
position  of  the  Company,  and  in  the  political 
map  of  India.  As  the  result  of  incessant 
wars  it  became  the  paramount  power  in  India. 
In  the  process  it  was  transformed  from  a 
trading  into  a  governing  corporation.  Its 


ITS  HISTORY  59 

affairs  were  constantly  before  Parliament. 
In  the  end  it  was  Drought  under  the  indirect 
control  of  the  Crown ;  and  ils  responsibilities 
and  powers,  and  the  responsibilities  and  powers 
of  its  servants,  were  strictly  defined  by  Acts 
of  Parliament.  As  will  be  explained  in 
another  section,  Pitt's  Act  of  1784  established  a 
system  ot  double  government.  The  Company 
continued  to  appoint  the  Governor-General 
and  nis  council :  but  the  home  government 
issued  orders  to  him,  directed  his  policy, 
and  cou*d  recall  him.  The  ministry  of  the 
day  became  responsible  for  what  was  done 
in  India.  This  immensely  strengthened  the 
position  of  tne  Governor-General.  If  his 
conduct  was  assailed,  the  political  party  in 
power  was  practically  bound  to  stand  by  him. 
Clive  and  Warren  Hastings  might  be  censured 
by  Parliament  without  the  credit  of  the 
ministry  being  affected.  The  Marquis  of 
Wellesley,  who  governed  India  under  the  new 
system,  did  more  high-handed  things  than 
Hastings  with  less  excuse  :  yet  his  conduct 
was  never  seriousiy  challenged. 

To  return  to  the  course  of  affairs  in  India. 
For  many  years  alter  Plassey  the  Company 
had  a  hard  struggle  lor  existence  in  the  anarchy 
in  which  the  country  was  engulfed.  Every- 
where predatory  leaders,  military  adven- 
turers, and  ex-officiais  of  the  old  Mughal  empire 
were  scrambling  lor  kingdoms  and  plunder, 


60  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

enlisting  large  armies  of  mercenaries,  and 
providing  employment  for  them  in  annual 
campaigns.  Of  these  competitors  the  most 
formidable  were  the  Mahrattas.  It  was  the 
Company's  policy  to  play  the  others  against 
the  Mahrattas,  and  its  alliances  and  wars 
were  mostly  undertaken  with  this  object. 
It  became  increasingly  apparent  that  either 
the  Mahrattas  must  be  put  down,  or  they 
would  eat  up  India.  The  danger  increased 
when  Scindia,  the  most  powerful  of  the 
Mahratta  chiefs,  brought  in  French  officers 
to  instruct  and  command  his  army.  At  the 
end  of  the  century  he  had  a  well  disciplined 
force  of  forty  thousand  men  of  all  arms  in 
northern  India.  In  southern  India  another 
large  army,  under  French  instructors,  had 
been  formed  under  Tipu  Sultan,  the  Muham- 
madan  ruler  of  Mysore.  This  was  the  situa- 
tion in  1798  when  the  Marquis  of  Wellesley 
became  Governor-General.  England  was  at 
death-grips  with  Napoleon  in  Europe,  and 
the  new  Governor-General  had  full  authority 
to  make  India  safe  at  all  costs.  This  he 
effectually  did.  In  the  course  of  five  years  not 
only  was  Tipu  extinguished  and  the  Mahrattas 
humbled  by  crushing  defeats  and  stripped  of 
much  territory,  but  by  a  series  of  treaties  the 
principal  native  states  were  now  brought  under 
control.  They  were  isolated  from  each  other, 
they  were  required  to  accept  for  the  protec- 


ITS  HISTORY  61 

tion  of  their  territories  "  subsidiary  "  forces 
raised  and  controlled  by  the  Company,  and 
their  external  policy  was  subjected  to  res- 
traint. From  this  time  (1805)  the  Company 
became  the  strongest  power  in  India. 

The  second  period  was  one  of  reconstruction. 
British  supremacy  under  the  form  of  a 
trading  Company  had  successfully  asserted 
itself  by  the  sword.  British  rule  had  now 
to  justify  itself  by  showing  that  it  could 
and  would  do  more  for  India  than  any  of  the 
native  and  foreign  governments  of  the  past. 
But  in  building  up  civil  institutions  and 
establishing  law  and  order  within  its  domin- 
ions, the  Company  had  to  work  with  the 
trowel  in  one  hand  and  the  sword  in  the  other. 
In  1817  Mahratta  ambitions  again  came  to  a 
head.  This  time  a  sterner  and  more  effective 
settlement  was  made.  The  rule  of  the  Brah- 
man dynasty  at  Poona  was  extinguished,  and 
its  territories  annexed.  The  other  Mahratta 
chiefs  were  placed  under  much  stricter  control, 
and  the  ancient  states  of  Rajputana  which 
they  were  systematically  exhausting  were 
brought  under  direct  British  protection 
and  saved  from  extinction.  In  1845  a 
trouble  which  had  for  years  hung  over 
northern  India  like  a  thunder  cloud,  finally 
burst.  The  Sikhs  of  the  Punjab  were  an 
example  of  the  strongest  form  of  political 
society  that  the  East  knows — a  military  coin- 


62  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

munity  nurtured  on  a  fanatical  religion  and 
the  blood  of  martyrs.  Originally  a  reformed 
sect  of  Hinduism  they  had  been  mercilessly 
hunted  down  and  nearly  exterminated  by 
the  bigoted  emperor  Aurangzeb  and  after 
him  by  the  Afghans.  Under  a  real  military 
genius,  the  Maharaja  Ranjit  Singh,  they 
overthrew  their  Muhammadan  oppressors, 
drove  the  Afghans  out  of  the  Punjab,  and 
became  a  nation  in  arms.  Ranjit  Singh  dur- 
ing a  long  reign  loyally  observed  tne  treaty 
of  alliance  which  he  had  entered  into  with  the 
Company.  His  death  in  1839  unchained  tne 
ambitions  of  the  Sikh  army.  A  period  of 
anarchy  ensued,  and  finally  its  leaders 
flung  it  against  the  British  power.  Two 
wars  were  necessary  (in  1845  and  1848), 
marked  by  obstinate  fighting,  before  the 
Sikh  army  was  finally  extinguished,  and  the 
peasant  soldiery  returned  to  the  plough.  Their 
reconciliation  to  British  rule  is  one  of  tne 
most  remarkable  incidents  of  modern  Indian 
history. 

The  dissolution  of  the  Sikh  power  seemed 
to  remove  the  last  danger  to  the  interna* 
peace  of  the  continent.  Under  the  vigorous 
administration  or  Lord  Daihousie,  India  to 
outward  appearance  was  entering  on  an  era 
of  material  ana  social  progress.  But  beneath 
the  surface  the  lorces  of  reaction  were  at 
work.  The  Indian  mutiny  was  primarily  a 


ITS  HISTORY  68 

military  revolt,  though  it  gave  expression  to 
the  unrest  and  vague  disquietude  which  the 
company's  rapid  advance  and  the  introduc- 
tion of  western  principles  of  government  and 
morality  had  occasioned  in  India  generally. 
It  was  a  struggle,  said  LORD  LAWRENCE, 
"  between  Christianity  and  civilization  on 
one  side  and  barbarism  and  heathenism  on  the 
other."  The  native  army  was  spoilt  by  privi- 
leges granted  to  it,  and  it  had  an  exaggerated 
sense  of  its  own  power.  It  was  five  times  as 
numerous  as  the  British  forces  then  serving 
in  India.  It  was  elated  by  victorious  cam- 
paigns :  at  the  same  time  its  caste  prejudices 
had  been  roused  by  expeditions  across  the 
"  black  water,"  as  the  Hindus  termed  the 
sea,  and  by  other  military  requirements. 
The  introduction  of  a  new  rifle  taking  car- 
tridges reported  to  be  smeared  with  hogs' 
grease  was  the  match  that  lit  the  fire.  The 
sepoys  turned  savagely  against  their  English 
officers,  and  broke  out  into  murderous  mutiny. 
"  The  wild  fanatic  outbreak  of  1857,"  as 
SIR  ALFRED  LYALL  has  termed  it,  was 
"  reactionary  in  its  causes  and  revolutionary 
in  its  effects.  It  shook  for  a  moment  the 
empire's  foundations,  but  it  cleared  the  area 
for  reconstruction  and  improvement."  Order 
had  to  be  deduced  from  confusion,  and  the 
foundations  of  a  new  and  uniform  policy  laid. 
The  direct  government  of  India  was  transferred 


64    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

in  1858  by  Act  of  Parliament  from  the  Com- 
pany to  the  Crown.  In  the  language  of  the 
Proclamation  addressed  by  Queen  Victoria 
to  the  princes  and  peoples  of  India,  the  Crown 
assumed  "  the  government  of  the  territories 
in  India,  hitherto  administered  in  trust  for  us 
by  the  Honourable  East  India  Company." 
The  step  was  necessary,  as  a  change  in  this 
direction  was  overdue.  In  a  notable  defence 
of  the  East  India  Company,  JOHN  STUART 
MILL  maintained  that  the  change  would  work 
folly  and  mischief,  and  predicted  in  his 
Autobiography  that  it  would  convert  the 
administration  of  India  "  into  a  thing  to  be 
scrambled  for  by  the  second  and  third  class 
of  English  politicians."  But  these  evils 
have  not  come  to  pass.  The  rule  of  the 
Crown  in  India  has  in  no  respect  been  inferior, 
and  is  in  most  respects  greatly  superior  to  that 
of  the  Company.  The  double-government 
system  was  at  best  a  clumsy  expedient. 
The  assumption  of  direct  sovereignty  by  the 
Crown  terminated  an  ambiguous  and  mis- 
leading division  of  responsibilities  and  powers. 
"  It  sealed  the  unity  of  Indian  government 
and  opened  a  new  era."  The  quotation  is 
from  King  Edward's  Proclamation  of  1908, 
likewise  addressed,  after  an  interval  of  fifty 
years,  to  the  princes  and  peoples  of  India. 
"  The  journey,"  the  Proclamation  went  on  to 
say,  "  was  arduous  and  the  advance  may 


ITS  HISTORY  65 

have  sometimes  seemed  slow ;  but  the 
incorporation  of  many  diversified  communities, 
and  of  some  three  hundred  millions  of  the 
human  race,  under  British  guidance  and 
control,  has  proceeded  steadfastly  and  without 
pause.  We  survey  our  labours  of  the  past 
half  century  with  clear  gaze  and  good  con- 
science." 

With  these  stately  and  noble  words  this 
necessarily  imperfect  sketch  of  the  past  of 
India  may  fitly  end.  The  Proclamation  of 
1858  was  a  pledge  of  good  government  to  the 
princes  and  peoples  of  India,  and  set  out  the 
principles  on  which  the  government  would  be 
conducted.  In  a  later  section  we  shall  see 
how  the  pledge  has  been  fulfilled. 


CHAPTER   III 

THE   PEOPLE 

EMINENT  authorities  tell  us  that  the  distinctive 
feature  of  the  modern  world  is  the  frank 
recognition  of  nationality  and  all  that  it 
involves.  They  also  tell  us  that  the  two 
main  features  of  modern  history  are  the 
development  of  nationalities  and  the  growth 
of  individual  freedom.  Tried  by  these  tests 
India  is  essentially  not  part  of  the  modern 
world.  It  is  a  great  continent  in  which  there 
are  no  nationalities.  The  population  is  an 
immense  mixed  multitude  in  different  stages 
of  material  and  moral  growth,  exhibiting  an 
extraordinary  variety  of  peoples,  creeds  and 
manners.  Much  of  India  may  still  be  regarded 
as  the  best  surviving  specimen  of  the  ancient 
world  on  a  large  scale. 

Some  of  the  causes  of  the  singular  spectacle 
which  the  country  presents  have  been  indi- 
cated in  the  preceding  section.  From  the 
earliest  ages  the  Indian  continent  has  been 
subject  to  invasions  and  migrations  of  great 

66 


THE  PEOPLE  67 

bodies  of  foreign  races  from  the  north. 
Some  seven  centuries  ago  the  Muhammadan 
supremacy  was  established  in  northern  India. 
It  overthrew  the  political  structure  and  insti- 
tutions of  Hinduism  and  planted  Islam  as  a 
separate  community  in  the  midst  of  an  image- 
worshipping  polytheistic  people.  Henceforward 
the  two  streams  of  belief — the  Moslem  with  his 
one  God,  and  the  Hindu  with  his  multitude 
of  gods — flowed  side  by  side  without  inter- 
mingling. In  every  part  of  the  continent  two 
societies  faced  each  other — the  Muhammadan 
with  his  traditions  of  conquest  and  rule ;  the 
Hindu,  with  a  vague  but  deeply  rooted  sense 
of  belonging  to  the  soil,  and  of  encompassing 
his  conquerors. 

But  something  more  than  the  perpetual 
influx  of  new  races  and  the  friction  of  rival 
religions  are  needed  to  explain  the  absence  of 
nationality  and  the  abundance  of  separate 
types.  In  European  countries  the  different 
races  that  have  come  in  have  blended  and 
produced  a  more  or  less  uniform  type.  Celt, 
Saxon,  Dane,  Norseman  and  Norman  in  our 
own  country  have  fused  together ;  only  in 
outlying  regions,  such  as  Wales,  do  we  recog- 
nise a  distinct  strain.  In  India  there  has 
been  blending  up  to  a  certain  point :  but 
something  at  an  early  stage  evidently  checked, 
if  it  did  not  altogether  stop,  the  natural 
process  of  amalgamation.  As  we  shall  explain 

C2 


68  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

in  another  section,  this  influence  was  of 
a  religious  and  racial  kind.  Brahmanism 
stepped  in  and  enforced  by  religious  sanctions 
the  colour  distinction  between  the  Aryan 
settlers  and  the  dusky  indigenous  races 
whom  they  found  in  India.  Occupations 
were  made  hereditary,  and  fenced  in  by 
prohibitions  against  intermarriage.  That  is 
to  say,  the  institution  of  caste  was  created ; 
and  its  effect  has  been  to  put  the  population 
into  innumerable  separate  pens,  and  to  keep 
the  inmates  of  each  pen  apart.  "  Nowhere 
else  in  the  world,"  it  has  been  said,  "do  we 
find  the  population  of  a  large  continent 
broken  up  into  an  infinite  number  of  mutually 
exclusive  aggregates,  the  members  of  which 
are  forbidden  by  an  inexorable  social  law  to 
marry  outside  the  group  to  which  they  them- 
selves belong.  ...  All  the  recognised 
races  of  Europe  are  the  result  of  a  process  of 
crossing  which  has  fused  a  number  of  different 
tribal  types  into  a  more  or  less  definable 
national  type.  In  India  the  process  of  fusion 
has  long  ago  been  arrested,  and  the  degree  of 
progress  which  it  had  made  up  to  the  point 
at  which  it  ceased  to  operate  is  expressed  in 
the  physical  characteristics  of  the  groups 
which  have  been  left  behind.  There  is 
consequently  no  national  type,  and  no  nation 
in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  term."  The 
traveller  in  India  can  test  this  statement  in 


THE  PEOPLE  69 

two  simple  ways.  If  during  a  long  journey 
he  observes  the  population  of  the  railway 
stations,  he  will  notice  a  change  of  type. 
The  change  is  very  gradual,  but  in  the  course 
of  twelve  hours  quite  noticeable.  If  he 
makes  a  stay  at  a  place  and  should  pass 
different  sections  of  the  inhabitants  under 
review,  he  will  notice  marked  physical  differ- 
ences between  individuals  of  different  castes, 
differences  of  colour,  build,  stature,  shape  of 
head,  features,  hair.  At  one  end  of  the  scale 
is  the  Brahman,  with  light  complexion  and 
almost  European  type  of  face  and  build ;  at 
the  other  the  swarthy  squat  form  of  the  coolie 
in  the  streets. 

A  great  deal  of  attention  has  been  given 
in  recent  years  by  skilled  observers  to  classi- 
fying and  grouping  the  different  elements 
of  the  Indian  population.  They  have  been 
able  to  distinguish  seven  main  physical 
types. 

The  first  is  the  Indo-Aryan  type.  It  is 
met  with  chiefly  in  the  Punjab,  Rajputana 
and  Kashmir.  The  true  Rajput  or  Sikh  is 
of  this  type.  It  approaches  most  closely  to 
that  ascribed  to  the  traditional  Aryan  colonists 
of  India.  It  is  that  of  a  tall,  slight,  loose- 
limbed  man,  with  a  head  long  in  proportion 
to  its  breadth,  a  long  and  prominent  nose,  and 
a  skin  of  light  transparent  brown.  In  marked 
contrast  to  this  is  the  Dravidian  type. 


70    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

The  term  Dravidian  requires  an  explanation. 
Originally  it  meant  the  group  of  languages 
spoken  in  southern  India,  and  then  was 
employed  to  describe  the  races  speaking  those 
languages.  These  races  are  fundamentally  of 
the  same  stock,  and  they  are  found  not  only 
in  the  south  but  also  in  the  centre  of  India. 
The  purest  examples  of  the  original  stock, 
before  it  was  modified  by  the  admixture  of 
*~Aryan  and  other  elements,  are  found  among 
the  primitive  and  half-civilised  tribes  dwelling 
in  the  low  hills  and  jungles  of  the  Chota 
Nagpur  plateau  and  the  Vindhya  hills. 
They  are  short  dark  men,  with  long  black 
hair  tending  to  curl,  and  with  very  broad 
noses  depressed  at  the  root.  To  the  tea- 
planter  they  are  invaluable,  as  they  are 
hardy  and  stand  exposure.  "  Labour,"  wrote 
the  late  SIR  HERBERT  RISLEY  in  his  most 
informing  and  valuable  work.  The  People  of 
India,  "  is  the  birthright  ol  the  pure  Dravidian 
and  as  a  coolie  ne  is  in  great  demand  wherever 
one  meets  him.  Whether  hoemg  tea  in  Assam, 
cutting  rice  in  the  swamps  ol  Eastern  Bengal, 
or  doing  scavenger's  work  in  the  streets  of 
Calcutta,  he  is  recognised  at  a  glance  by 
his  black  skin,  his  swarthy  figure,  and  the 
negro-like  proportions  of  his  nose."  The 
third  type  is  the  Mongolian.  It  is  represented 
by  the  races  peopling  the  border-land  between 
India  and  Tibet,  and  by  tne  Burmese.  The 


THE  PEOPLE  71 

type  is  familiar  to  us  in  the  Chinese.  It  is  that 
of  a  small  man  with  broad  head,  narrow 
slant  eyes,  a  dark  complexion  tinged  with 
yellow,  and  a  flat  face. 

These  are  the  main  stocks  which  have 
peopled  India.  The  four  other  types  which 
have  been  recognised  are  admixture  of  these 
or  of  other  stocks.  They  are  the  Aryo- 
Dravidian,  the  Mongolo-Dravidian,  the  Scyiho- 
Dravidian,  and  the  Turko-Iranian. 

The  Aryo-Dravidian,  as  the  term  implies, 
is  the  result  of  the  intermixture  in  varying 
proportions  of  the  Indo-Aryan  and  Dravi- 
dian  stocks,  the  former  element  predominating 
in  the  higher  classes,  and  the  latter  in  the 
lower.  In  the  Punjab  the  Indo-Aryan  race  is 
found  without  Dravidian  admixture.  In  the 
south  and  centre  of  the  continent  the  mass 
of  the  population  is  more  or  less  pure  Dravi- 
dian. But  in  the  country  to  the  east  of  the 
Punjab,  commonly  known  as  the  Gangetic 
valley,  the  whole  population  is  an  admixture 
of  the  two  stocks.  The  Brahman  there  is  not 
pure  Indo-Aryan,  but  he  approximates  to  that 
type.  The  lower  the  caste,  the  nearer  does  its 
type  come  to  the  blackness  and  the  stumpy 
figure  of  the  Dravidian.  The  Mongolo- 
Dravidian  type,  as  the  name  implies,  is  a 
blend  of  the  Mongolian  and  Dravidian  races. 
The  population  of  Bengal  and  Assam  is  of  this 
strain.  In  that  part  of  India  there  is  very 


72    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

little  Aryan  blood.  The  broad  head  and  the 
dark  skin  of  the  average  Bengali  mark 
his  origin.  In  pre-historic  times  Mongolian 
tribes  must  have  poured  into  that  part 
of  India  from  the  highlands  of  Tibet  and 
China,  and  mingled  with  the  aboriginal 
inhabitants. 

The  Scytho-Dravidian  type  is  represented 
by  the  Mahratta  race  inhabiting  the  western 
side  of  the  Deccan.  The  characteristics  of 
this  race  point  to  a  blend  of  the  Tartar  or 
Scythian  element  from  the  steppes  of  central 
Asia  with  the  original  Dravidian  inhabitants 
of  India.  And  this  is  consistent  with  certain 
historical  facts.  Long  after  the  settlement 
of  the  Aryans  in  the  Punjab  successive 
swarms  of  Scythian  or  Tartar  invaders 
forced  the  northern  passes  and  passed  down 
the  Indus  valley.  It  is  supposed  that  they 
eventually  moved  on  into  the  Deccan,  and 
established  themselves  among  the  Dravidian 
inhabitants.  If  the  theory  be  true,  it  solves 
a  long  unsettled  problem  as  to  the  origin  of 
the  Mahratta  race. 

The  last  type  to  be  mentioned  is  the 
Turko-Iranian.  This  is  not  found  in  India 
proper  but  in  the  border-lands  to  the  west 
of  the  Indus  which  are  peopled  by  Beloch 
and  Afghan  tribes.  In  former  days  the 
Afghans  were  fancifully  identified  as  the 
descendants  of  the  lost  tribes  of  Israel.  Their 


THE  PEOPLE  78 

physiognomy  is  suggestive  of  the  Israelite, 
and  they  have  some  vague  traditions  of  such  an 
origin.  But  more  accurate  enquiry  has  shown 
that  they  are  an  admixture  of  the  Iranian 
race  inhabiting  the  highlands  of  Persia  and 
the  Turk  or  Tartar  stock.  They  have  the  tall 
stature,  the  long  nose,  the  fair  complexion 
of  the  Indo-European  stock  to  which  the 
Iranians  belonged ;  and  the  broad  head  of 
the  Turk. 

Such  are  the  seven  main  types  into  which 
by  careful  observations  and  measurements 
the  Indian  population  has  been  graded. 
It  is  a  useful  classification  because  it  interprets 
history  in  the  light  of  present  facts.  It 
explains  the  effects  of  the  successive  invasions 
of  foreign  races  which  India  has  experienced. 
But  it  is  necessarily  very  rough  and  is  only 
a  general  guide  to  the  distribution  of  the 
Indian  races.  In  southern  India  for  instance, 
where  the  mass  of  the  people  are  of  the 
indigenous  stock,  there  is  a  considerable 
Brahman  element  which  is  unquestionably 
Aryan  in  type.  There  was  no  Aryan  conquest 
of  the  south,  but  Aryans  migrated  there 
and  have  kept  themselves  apart  almost  as  a 
separate  community.  There  is  a  great  gulf 
between  the  fair-skinned  southern  Indian 
Brahman  and  the  dusky  multitudes  of  the 
general  population.  In  the  Punjab  again, 
though  the  prevailing  type  is  unquestionably 


74    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

Aryan,  there  are  many  descendants  of  Afghan 
Persian  or  Mughal  adventurers  and  soldiers 
of  fortune  whom  the  Muhammadan  con- 
querors brought  into  India  in  their  train. 
Equally  is  this  the  case  throughout  the 
greater  part  of  Hindustan  or,  as  it  is  now 
called,  the  United  Provinces  of  Agra  and 
Oudh.  It  is  not  uncommon  there  to  come 
across  groups  of  families  or  even  clans  whose 
ancestors  rode  with  the  Emperor  Babar 
to  the  taking  of  Delhi.  There  is  a  large  tract 
in  that  region  known  as  Rohilkand,  larger  than 
most  English  counties,  of  wnich  the  Afghan 
tribe  of  Rohillas  possessed  themselves  during 
the  anarchy  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and 
where  they  are  still  numerous. 

The  Rajput  clans  are  the  purest  specimens 
of  the  Aryan  race  in  India.  But  it  would 
be  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  the  mass  of  the 
population  of  Rajputana  is  of  this  type. 
The  Rajputs  are  there  as  rulers  and  overlords. 
But  they  are  in  a  great  minority.  They  own 
the  land,  but  they  do  not  till  it ;  for  a  Rajput 
thinks  it  a  disgrace  to  plough  or  sow,  or  do 
any  other  manual  work.  The  cultivating 
and  trading  classes  are  of  Dravidian  and 
mixed  Dravidian  types.  And  still  lower  down 
in  the  social  scale,  in  the  recesses  of  the 
hills  and  jungles,  the  pure  Dravidian  is  found 
in  the  person  of  the  Bheel.  The  Bheel  has 
been  drawn  to  the  life  by  SIR  ALFRED  LYALL 


THE  PEOPLE  75 

in  his  Asiatic  Studies.  SIR  ALFRED  LYALL 
has  thus  described  a  scene  in  the  hill 
tracts  of  Rajputana.  "  The  tract  is 
mainly  peopled  by  the  aboriginal  tribe  of 
Bheels  and  the  head  man  of  a  Bheel  village 
is  being  examined  touching  a  recent  foray. 
A  very  black  little  man,  with  a  wisp  of  cloth 
around  his  ragged  loins,  stands  forth,  bow  and 
quiver  in  hand,  swears  by  the  dog,  and  speaks 
out  sturdily :  *  Here  is  the  herd  we  lifted ; 
we  render  back  all  but  three  cows,  of  which 
two  we  roasted  and  eat  on  the  spot  after 
harrying  the  village,  and  the  third  we  sold  for 
a  keg  of  liquor  to  wash  down  the  flesh. 
As  for  the  Brahman  we  shot  in  the  scuffle, 
we  will  pay  the  proper  blood-money.'  A 
slight  shudder  runs  through  the  high-caste 
Hindu  officials  who  record  this  candid  state- 
ment ;  a  sympathetic  grin  flits  across  the 
face  of  a  huge  Afghan,  who  has  come  wander- 
ing down  for  service  or  gang-robbery  into 
these  jungles  where  he  is  to  the  Bheels 
as  a  shark  among  small  pike ;  and  it  is 
clear  that  we  have  got  into  a  stratum 
of  society  far  below  Aryan  or  Brahmanic 
prejudices." 

Enough  has  been  said  to  show  the  strange 
mixture  of  races  and  types  that  go  to  make 
the  peoples  of  India.  The  sevenfold  classi- 
fication, it  should  be  noted,  has  nothing  to  do 
with  religions  or  languages.  The  fact  that 


76    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

an  Indian  is  of  Aryan  or  Dravidian  stock, 
or  a  blend  of  these  or  other  stocks,  is  no 
certain  guide  to  his  religion  or  tongue.  As 
regards  religions,  it  will  be  shown  later  on 
that  eleven  persons  out  of  twelve  in  India 
profess  either  Hinduism  or  Muhammadanism, 
the  Hindus  being  hi  a  vast  majority ;  while 
the  twelfth  person  is  ordinarily  a  Buddhist, 
or  else  a  half  savage  who  believes  in  spirits, 
ghosts,  and  magic. 

The  Bheel  in  Sir  Alfred  Lyall's  description 
belongs  to  this  last  class,  as  do  all  the  primitive 
tribes  of  the  hills  and  jungles  throughout 
India.  Indian  Muhammadans  are  of  all 
races,  though  from  political  causes  they  are 
unevenly  distributed  over  the  continent. 
They  are  most  numerous  in  north-west  India 
and  again  in  the  eastern  districts  of  lower 
Bengal.  West  of  the  Indus,  as  might  be 
expected  from  the  proximity  of  the  Islamic 
countries  of  Persia  and  Afghanistan,  nearly 
every  person  is  a  Muhammadan.  In  the  west 
and  south-west  of  the  Punjab  Moslems  pre- 
dominate both  in  the  towns  and  among  the 
rural  population.  In  the  eastern  Punjab  and 
in  the  United  Provinces  as  far  east  as  Benares, 
the  town  population  is  largely  Muhammadan, 
and  in  places  there  is  a  considerable  Muhamma- 
dan element  among  the  country  population. 
Some  Indian  Muhammadans  are  of  foreign 
origin,  and  show  it  in  their  features.  But  the 


THE  PEOPLE  77 

great  majority  are  the  descendants  of  Indian 
converts.  In  the  Punjab  one  section  of  a 
tribe  will  be  Hindu  by  religion  and  another 
Muhammadan.  When  and  why  the  con- 
version took  place  is  not  always  possible 
to  ascertain.  In  some  cases  it  was  no  doubt 
forcible,  being  pressed  upon  the  vanquished 
by  their  Moslem  conquerors  as  the  price 
of  life.  But  more  generally  it  was  the 
result  of  persuasion  and  self-interest.  In 
eastern  Bengal,  where  the  Muhammadans 
to-day  outnumber  the  Hindus,  the  population 
must  evidently  have  been  converted  en  masse. 
At  the  time  of  the  Muhammadan  conquest 
Hinduism  had  little  hold  on  the  half -Mongolian 
half-Dravidian  people  of  these  parts,  and  they 
readily  accepted  the  new  faith.  In  all  regions 
of  the  world  the  religion  of  the  Prophet  has 
always  had  a  great  attraction  for  savage  and 
semi-civilised  races,  and  among  them  its 
progress  has  invariably  been  rapid.  A  social 
system  such  as  Hinduism,  with  an  elaborate 
theology  and  a  priestly  order,  offers  much 
greater  resistance  to  a  rival  creed,  whether 
it  be  that  of  Islam  or  of  Christianity.  Accord- 
ingly we  find  that  Muhammadanism  nowa- 
days makes  few  converts  in  the  Hindu 
community.  But  Muhammadans  for  all  that 
are  on  the  increase  in  India.  Their  social 
customs,  which  allow  the  re-marriage  of 
widows  and  do  not  favour  child  marriage, 


78  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

undoubtedly  give  them  a  natural  advantage 
over  the  Hindus ;  and  among  the  despised 
and  depressed  classes  that  are  practically 
outside  the  pale  of  Hinduism  they  still  win 
converts.  Too  much  stress  can  easilv  be 
laid  on  the  point  that  Muhammadanism  is 
essentially  a  missionary  religion,  whereas 
Brahmanism  is  not ;  for  Islam  in  India  has 
certainly  lost  much  of  the  proselytising  zeal 
which  it  once  possessed.  But  at  least  it  makes 
the  path  of  the  convert  easy.  It  welcomes  all 
comers  without  regard  to  race  or  caste.  It 
assigns  to  the  lowliest  convert  the  full  privi- 
leges of  a  believer.  It  allows  him  to  retain 
in  his  new  life  superstitions  and  practices 
that  are  dear  to  him.  The  wonder  is  that 
with  all  these  advantages  Muhammadanism 
does  not  make  even  greater  progress  in  India 
than  the  census  registers. 

Language  in  India  may  or  may  not  be  a 
guide  to  race.  Very  often  it  is  not.  Of 
languages  in  India  there  is  no  lack.  Thirty 
or  forty  distinct  Indian  languages  are  enume- 
rated by  experts,  while  the  number  of  dialects 
is  much  greater.  But  these  languages  fall 
into  three  or  four  groups,  and  these  groups 
roughly  correspond  with  the  racial  origins 
of  the  population.  The  two  groups  of  most 
importance  comprise  respectively  the  Indo- 
European  or  Aryan  languages  and  the  Dra- 
vidian.  Two  minor  groups  with  which  we 


THE  PEOPLE  79 

need  not  concern  ourselves  are  the  Kolarian, 
comprising  the  curious  and  very  ancient  speech 
o"  the  primitive  tribes  of  Chota  Nagpur,  and  the 
Tibetan-Chinese  group,  of  which  the  Burmese 
language  is  the  most  important.  Broadly 
speaking,  the  languages  of  the  Aryan  group 
have  extended  themselves  at  the  expense  of 
the  Dravidian.  The  latter,  of  which  the 
principal  branches  are  Telugu,  Tamil,  and 
Kanarese,  hold  firmly  the  south  where  the 
people  are  Dravidian.  The  Aryan  group — 
Punjabi,  Hindi,  Marathi,  Bengali,  etc. — 
are  practically  the  languages  of  the  remainder 
of  the  continent.  Thus  the  people  of  Bengal 
who  have  very  little  Aryan  blood  speak  a 
language  derived  from  the  ancient  sanskritic 
tongue.  The  same  is  the  case  with  the  mixed 
Dravidian  population  of  the  central  regions 
of  India  as  far  south  as  the  Kishna  river. 
This  is  an  important  fact,  as  it  shows  that 
notwithstanding  the  extraordinary  varieties 
of  race  and  speech  that  are  found  in  India, 
there  is  an  underlying  bond  of  civilisation 
in  the  language  and  sacred  literature  of 
the  Aryans.  Even  in  southern  India  this 
literature  has  been  widely  disseminated 
among  the  Dravidian  people  in  their  own 
vernaculars,  through  the  labours  of  Brahman 
scholars. 

But  any  account  of  the  races  or  languages 
of  India  would  be  incomplete  without  mention 


80  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

of  the  influence  that  the  spread  of  the  English 
language  is  exerting  over  the  population 
generally.  In  1836,  under  the  powerful 
advocacy  of  LORD  MACAULAY,  a  member 
of  the  Governor-General's  council  in  Calcutta, 
the  Indian  government  decided  that  higher 
education  in  the  country  should  be  given 
in  English.  "  The  question  before  us,"  he 
wrote,  "  is  simply  whether,  when  it  is  in  our 
power  to  teach  this  language — English — we 
shall  teach  languages  in  which,  by  universal 
confession,  there  are  no  books  on  any  subject 
which  deserve  to  be  compared  with  our  own ; 
whether,  when  we  can  teach  European  science, 
we  shall  teach  systems  which,  by  universal 
confession,  wherever  they  differ  from  those 
of  Europe,  differ  for  the  worse  ;  and  whether, 
when  we  patronise  sound  philosophy  and 
true  history,  we  shall  countenance  at  the 
public  expense,  medical  doctrines  which 
would  disgrace  an  English  farrier,  astronomy 
which  would  move  laughter  in  the  girls  of 
an  English  boarding  school,  history  abounding 
with  kings  thirty  feet  high,  and  reigns  thirty 
thousand  years  long,  and  geography  made 
up  of  seas  of  treacle  and  seas  of  butter." 
Lord  Macaulay  has  been  blamed  for  ignoring 
the  sentimental  attachment  of  the  Indian 
peoples  to  their  ancient  book  lore  and  for 
proposing  to  replace  it  in  all  public  institutions 
by  a  foreign  language  and  literature.  It  has 


THE  PEOPLE  81 

also  been  said  that  politically  the  decision 
was  wrong  :  that  the  new  educational  system 
cut  Indian  thought  adrift  from  its  old  moorings 
and  prematurely  launched  it  on  the  sea  of 
western  speculation  :  that  it  destroyed  the 
Indian's  old  convictions  and  prejudices  with- 
out putting  anything  solid  in  then*  place, 
and  gave  him  intellectual  freedom  before  he 
was  fit  to  use  it.  These  are  objections  for 
which  there  is  a  good  deal  to  be  said.  But 
on  the  broad  issue  as  to  whether  the  English 
language  should  be  the  medium  of  higher 
education,  Lord  Macaulay  was  unquestionably 
right.  If  India  was  to  be  helped  to  fall  into 
line  with  western  civilisation  and  to  be 
admitted  to  modern  knowledge,  no  other 
conclusion  was  possible.  The  abruptness  of 
the  change,  and  the  preponderance  given  to 
literature  over  science  in  the  high  schools 
and  colleges,  were  mistakes  of  detail,  and  do 
not  affect  the  principle.  Indian  opinion  is 
overwhelmingly  in  favour  of  English.  Suitable 
provision  everywhere  exists  for  the  teaching 
of  oriental  languages  and  literatures.  But 
the  youth  of  the  country  turns  to  English 
because  it  is  at  once  the  door  to  employment 
and  to  knowledge.  We  are  told  that  through- 
out the  Roman  empire  the  public  business 
was  conducted  in  Latin,  and  that  that  language 
was  used  in  every  official  act.  In  the  British 
Indian  empire  the  English  language  plays 


82  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

the  part  that  Latin  did  in  the  empire  of  the 
Caesars.  It  is  the  language  of  official  business. 
The  laws  are  made  in  it :  the  work  of  the 
highest  courts  of  justice  is  conducted  in  it : 
the  orders  of  the  government  are  issued  in  it : 
and  public  affairs  are  discussed  in  it.  In 
comparison  with  English  the  various  vernacu- 
lar languages  have  merely  a  local  utility. 
Within  their  respective  limits  they  have 
a  much  larger  body  of  readers  than  English, 
but  English  inspires  ideas.  The  educated 
classes  draw  their  knowledge  from  English 
books  and  newspapers.  Behind  the  vernacular 
journal  is  the  man  who  reads  English,  though 
he  may  strangely  misinterpret  and  misuse 
the  information  and  arguments  which  he 
obtains  from  this  source. 

It  is  safe  to  say  that  the  English  language 
and  what  it  stands  for  is  the  most  powerful 
force  acting  to-day  in  India  in  the  direction 
of  social  and  national  unity.  It  has  been 
said  that  the  languages  of  southern  India  are 
as  unintelligible  in  Lahore  as  they  would  be 
in  London,  and  that  a  native  of  Calcutta  or 
Bombay  is  as  much  a  foreigner  in  Delhi  or 
Peshawar  as  an  Englishman  is  a  foreigner 
in  Rome  or  Paris.  But  the  Englishman  who 
reads  and  speaks  French  does  not  feel  himself 
wholly  a  foreigner  in  Paris.  The  English- 
speaking  Indian  likewise  is  not  a  foreigner  in 
any  part  of  India  where  English  is  spoken.  One 


THE  PEOPLE  88 

of  the  novel  features  of  modern  Indian  life  is 
the  frequent  holding  of  Pan-Indian  congresses 
for  the  discussion  of  political,  social,  industrial, 
religious  and  other  subjects.  These  assemblies, 
which  bring  together  the  most  prominent 
men  from  all  parts  of  India,  would  be  im- 
possible were  it  not  for  the  common  basis 
provided  by  the  English  language.  It  may 
also  be  added  that  they  could  not  be  held  if 
India  were  without  railways,  as  the  greater 
part  of  Asia  still  is.  When  we  reflect  on  all 
this  we  see  that  new  forces  are  operating  on 
the  people,  and  are  breaking  down  the 
walls  of  separation  that  diversities  of  race 
and  language,  to  say  nothing  of  religions 
and  the  caste  system,  have  erected  in  the 
past. 

But  we  must  not  exaggerate  the  extent  to 
which  a  knowledge  of  English,  or  indeed  any 
book  knowledge  at  all,  is  at  present  possessed 
by  the  population.  In  a  population  of 
three  hundred  million  there  may  be  a  million 
persons  can  read  and  speak  English,  and  of 
these  many  know  it  very  imperfectly.  It  is 
the  tendency  that  is  important,  and  the 
tendency  is  for  English  to  spread.  As  to 
education  generally,  the  Indian  population 
has  the  distinction  of  being  one  of  the  most 
illiterate  in  the  world.  Only  ten  per  cent, 
of  the  male  population  and  one  per  cent, 
of  the  female  population  can  read  and  write. 


84  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

Only  one  boy  in  four  attends  school.  Outside 
missionary  and  other  special  circles  there  is 
practically  no  female  education.  Popular 
prejudice  against  it  is  firmly  entrenched 
in  the  institutions  of  caste  and  early  marriage, 
in  the  purdah  system,  and  in  the  oriental 
view  of  the  mission  of  women.  The  traditional 
duty  of  the  Indian  woman  is  to  be  a  wife 
and  look  after  the  household :  and  it  is 
thought  that  for  this  education  will  spoil 
her.  Nor  is  there  any  general  desire  for 
schooling  for  boys.  Three-fourths  of  the 
people  are  agriculturists,  and  the  cultivator 
all  the  world  over  is  sceptical  as  to  the  utility 
of  the  three  r.s.  The  Indian  peasant  believes 
that  they  spoil  a  lad  and  turn  him  from  the 
land  to  town  life.  The  writer  in  his  younger 
days  has  been  roundly  rebuked  by  sturdy 
cultivators  for  suggesting  that  a  school  in 
their  village  would  be  a  good  thing.  There 
is  this  to  be  said  that  the  Indian  peasant, 
though  illiterate,  is  not  without  knowledge. 
He  has  been  carefully  trained  from  boyhood 
in  the  ritual  and  the  religious  observances  of  his 
forefathers.  He  hears  the  ancient  epics  read 
in  their  pithy  vernacular  form.  He  is  full 
of  lore  about  crops  and  soils  and  birds  and 
beasts.  In  short,  he  is  a  disciplined  intelli- 
gent person,  moulded  on  a  traditional  system 
which  in  spite  of  many  defects,  is  not  without 
its  good  points.  This  is  not  an  argument  for 


THE  PEOPLE  85 

withholding  elementary  education  from  him. 
But  it  explains  why  in  rural  India  a  knowledge 
of  reading  and  writing  may  not  be  quite  as 
indispensable  as  we  with  our  western  ideas 
are  disposed  to  assume. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   CASTE   SYSTEM 

THE  institution  of  caste  is  a  peculiar  feature 
of  Indian  society.  In  no  other  country 
does  anything  of  the  same  kind  exist.  It 
has  consequently  attracted  a  great  deal 
of  attention,  and  has  been  the  subject  of 
minute  study  by  very  competent  observers 
and  scholars. 

Caste  is  a  system  by  which  the  accident 
of  birth  determines  once  for  all  the  whole 
course  of  a  man's  social  and  domestic  relations. 
Throughout  life  he  must  eat,  drink,  dress, 
marry  and  give  in  marriage  in  accordance 
with  the  usages  of  the  community  hi  which 
he  is  born.  The  word  itself  is  of  Portuguese 
origin,  and  is  derived  from  the  Latin  castus, 
and  signifies  purity  of  blood.  When  the 
Portuguese  settled  on  the  coast  of  India, 
they  were  at  once  struck  with  this  peculiarity 
of  the  natives  about  them.  They  recorded 
that  the  Indians  "  divide  themselves  into  dis- 
tinct races  or  castes  (castas)  of  greater  or 
less  dignity,  and  keep  these  so  superstitious!  y 

86 


THE  CASTE  SYSTEM  87 

that  no  one  of  a  higher  caste  can  eat  and  drink 
with  those  of  a  lower."  They  noted  accurately 
the  aspect  of  the  caste  system  that  is  most 
obvious  to  an  outside  observer.  But  in  point 
of  fact  the  marriage  aspect  of  the  caste 
system  is  of  greater  importance,  and  is  more 
fundamental.  If  it  were  not  for  the  regula- 
tions relating  to  marriage,  the  restrictions 
regarding  food  and  drink  would  be  insufficient 
to  maintain  the  institution.  Its  end  and 
object  is  to  keep  society  rigidly  divided  into 
a  number  of  permanent  groups  and  to  prevent 
them  from  amalgamating.  This  cannot  be 
accomplished  without  prohibiting  marriages 
outside  the  group.  Our  knowledge  of  the 
usages  of  the  caste  system  as  it  exists  to-day 
in  India  is  abundant.  The  chief  difficulty 
in  describing  its  practical  working  lies  in  the 
multitude  of  the  facts.  But  when  we  try 
to  account  for  its  origin  and  to  trace  its 
development,  we  enter  a  field  of  enquiry  where 
great  differences  of  opinion  exist,  and  where 
many  theories  are  met  with.  Let  us  begin 
with  this  question  of  origin. 

If  we  should  ask  an  orthodox  Hindu  how 
this  caste  system  originated  and  developed 
he  would  refer  to  the  laws  of  Manu  and  to 
other  ancient  Sanscrit  texts  of  a  semi-priestly, 
semi-legal  kind.  The  institutes  of  Manu  might 
be  likened  in  a  very  general  way,  and  subject 
to  large  qualifications,  to  the  Hebrew  book  of 


88  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

Leviticus  in  our  Bible.  The  work  was 
compiled  about  A.D.  200.  It  is  a  priestly  code, 
and  it  explains  the  constitution  of  Indian 
society  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  Brah- 
manical  priesthood.  According  to  Manu, 
there  were  three  sacred  or  "  twice-born " 
castes.  The  Brahman  issued  from  the  head 
of  Brahma,  the  soul  of  the  universe ;  the 
Kshattriya  or  warrior,  from  his  arms ;  the 
Vaisya,  or  husbandman,  from  his  thighs. 
There  was  a  fourth  or  Sudra  caste,  which 
was  not  admitted  to  the  sacrifices  or  to  the 
reading  of  the  Vedas,  and  whose  sole  function 
was  to  serve  the  twice-born.  Below  the 
Sudra  came  a  multitude  of  lower  castes, 
the  offspring  of  mixed  or  irregular  marriages, 
or  of  fathers  who  neglected  the  ceremonial 
worship ;  and  lowest  of  all,  there  were 
"  out-castes."  In  the  comprehensive  list  of 
these  inferior  castes  there  are  names  of  castes 
which  exist  to  this  day,  and  various  menial 
and  degrading  occupations  are  assigned  to 
them. 

The  meaning  of  the  epithet  "  twice-born," 
which  plays  so  important  a  part  in  the 
religious  ideas  of  Hinduism,  may  be  briefly 
explained.  The  second  or  spiritual  birth  takes 
place  when  the  Brahman  or  Kshattriya  boy 
is  taught  how  to  offer  his  first  oblation  to  the 
gods,  is  made  to  recite  short  sacred  words  or 
Vedic  texts  which  serve  as  daily  prayers,  and 


THE  CASTE  SYSTEM  89 

is  ceremonially  invested  with  the  "  sacred 
thread."  The  ceremony  marks  the  beginning 
of  his  spiritual  life.  Not  till  then  does  he 
become  really  and  truly  a  member  of  his 
divinely  appointed  caste.  The  sacred  thread, 
which  is  a  thin  coil  of  three  or  more  loose 
strands,  is  worn  over  the  left  shoulder.  It  is 
of  cotton  in  the  case  of  a  Brahman,  and  of 
hemp  or  wool  in  other  cases.  It  is  the  dearest 
possession  of  the  Brahman,  the  symbol  of  his 
divine  origin.  It  is  the  concrete  embodiment 
of  the  fundamental  ideas  of  Hinduism. 

To  return  to  Manu  and  his  institutes. 
When  modern  scholars  got  to  work  on  the 
old  texts,  they  saw  that  underneath  the 
jumble  of  priestly  lore  and  childish  stories 
there  was  a  basis  of  fact.  For  an  ancient  writer 
never  wholly  invents  :  he  takes  the  material 
for  his  fiction  from  the  actual  world  around 
him.  In  this  account  of  the  caste  system 
three  points  were  clear.  The  system  was 
obviously  designed  to  glorify  the  Brahmans. 
All  through  they  are  seen  to  have  the  best 
of  it.  Secondly,  the  basis  of  the  system 
was  descent  and  purity  of  blood.  And 
thirdly,  occupations  or  callings  were  heredi- 
tary and  position  in  the  caste  scale  went  with 
the  nature  of  the  occupation.  In  seeking  a 
rational  explanation  of  the  origin  of  caste 
modern  scholars  have  differed  in  the  weight 
they  have  assigned  to  these  several  features 


90    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

in  Manu's  account,  and  thereby  they  have 
come  to  somewhat  different  conclusions. 

According  to  one  theory  caste  arose  solely 
out  of  occupations.  Primitive  society,  it 
is  said,  is  a  very  simple  affair.  It  consists 
of  the  rulers,  the  cultivators,  and  possibly  the 
priests.  These  occupations  are  the  property 
of  families,  and  are  hereditary.  As  society 
becomes  more  complex,  other  occupations 
emerge,  and  likewise  become  hereditary. 
The  later  occupations  are  less  dignified  than 
the  primary  ones,  and  rank  lower  hi  the 
social  scale.  In  time  there  is  a  regular 
gradation  of  society  on  the  basis  of  hereditary 
occupations,  and  this  is  given  a  certain  fixity 
and  rigidity  by  the  sanctions  of  religion. 
Of  this  theory  it  is  enough  to  say  that  it  fails 
to  account  for  the  peculiarities  of  Indian  caste. 

A  second  theory,  which  was  worked  out 
with  great  brilliancy  and  wealth  of  illustration 
by  the  late  SIR  DENZIL  IBBETSON  in  his 
Punjab  Census  Report,  leans  also  to  com- 
munity of  occupations  as  accounting  for  the 
origin  and  diversity  of  Indian  castes ;  but 
ascribes  the  form  which  the  caste  system 
finally  took  to  the  extraordinary  exaltation 
of  the  priestly  office  hi  India.  The  Brahmans, 
in  order  to  exalt  their  own  position,  insisted 
on  the  necessarily  hereditary  nature  of 
occupation  ;  and  they  supported  this  principle 
by  inventing  a  purely  artificial  set  of  rules 


THE  CASTE  SYSTEM  91 

about  marriage  and  inter-marriage,  by  declar- 
ing certain  occupations  and  foods  to  be 
impure,  and  by  prescribing  the  conditions 
and  degrees  of  social  intercourse  permitted 
between  the  several  castes.  This  theory  is 
open  to  objections.  In  no  other  country  have 
trade  guilds  or  other  similar  associations  of 
workmen  so  formed  themselves  into  absolutely 
closed  groups  within  which  alone  marriage 
is  permitted.  Again,  it  is  difficult  to  believe 
that  industrial  groups  of  the  kind  supposed 
would  submit  themselves  to  a  strict  code  of 
rules  about  marriage  and  the  like,  purely 
artificial  in  character  and  obviously  framed 
in  the  self-interest  of  the  priests.  Indian 
caste  would  seem  to  require  for  its  origin  some 
stronger  compelling  force  than  community 
of  occupation. 

A  third  theory  has  been  suggested  by  a 
distinguished  French  orientalist,  M.  SENART. 
He  points  out  that  among  the  Greeks  and 
Romans,  to  whom  the  Indo- Aryan  race  was 
akin,  there  existed  the  three  group  divisions 
of  the  family,  the  clan  and  the  tribe.  (In 
Latin  gens,  curia,  tribus.)  These  correspond 
to  the  family,  the  sub-caste,  and  the  caste 
of  India.  The  distinctive  feature  of  the 
Indian  caste  system  is  that  a  man  must  not 
marry  within  his  sub-caste  group  and  must 
not  many  outside  his  caste  group.  Similar 
restrictions  on  marriage  existed  in  Greece 


92    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

and  Rome.  In  Rome  there  was  a  long 
struggle  before  the  plebeians  obtained  the 
right  of  lawful  marriage  with  the  patrician 
women.  Similarly  there  were  restrictions 
about  food  and  the  hearth-fire  in  Greece 
and  Rome  which  recall  those  in  force  in 
India.  In  India,  when  a  man  is  excluded 
from  caste,  his  "  tobacco  and  water  "  is  said 
to  be  stopped.  He  may  not  drink  from  an 
old  caste-fellow's  vessel  or  have  a  pull  at  his 
pipe.  In  Rome  the  formula  was  exclusion 
from  water  and  fire  (aqua  el  igni),  fire  here 
meaning  the  sacred  fire  of  the  hearth.  From 
these  and  other  analogies  M.  SENART  infers 
that  the  caste  system  of  India  is  merely 
the  extension  of  the  ancient  Aryan  family 
system.  But  if  this  is  so,  how  is  it  that  while 
in  Europe  the  family,  the  clan,  and  the  tribe 
have  been  absorbed  into  the  nation,  in  India 
they  have  solidified  into  cast-iron  compart- 
ments into  which  the  whole  population  is 
distributed  and  locked  up  ?  M.  SENART 
would  find  the  explanation  of  this  remarkable 
difference  in  the  circumstances  of  the  Aryan 
settlement  in  India.  The  Aryans  were  a 
small  and  scattered  people  in  the  midst  of 
alien  races.  To  preserve  themselves  as  a 
separate  race  they  were  driven  to  fence  in 
the  race  by  high  doctrines  about  descent  and 
purity  of  blood ;  and  in  this  they  were  aided 
by  their  Brahman  priests. 


THE  CASTE  SYSTEM  93 

Such  are  some  of  the  theories  about  the 
origin  of  Indian  castes.  The  theories  are  not 
wholly  opposed  to  each  other.  They  lay  hold 
of  different  aspects  of  a  very  ancient  institution 
which  in  taking  its  present  shape  was  exposed 
to  diverse  influences.  The  latest  school  of 
investigators  in  India,  while  welcoming  the 
clue  given  by  M.  SENART  to  analogous 
institutions  of  other  portions  of  the  Indo- 
European  race,  is  disposed  to  lay  stress  on  the 
colour  element  and  racial  antagonism  apparent 
in  the  ancient  scheme  of  classes  as  given  in 
Manu.  The  very  word  used  to  denote  these 
classes  in  Sanscrit  means  "  colour."  It  is 
conjectured  that  the  Aryans  subdued  the 
inferior  Dravidian  race,  established  them- 
selves as  conquerors  and  captured  women 
according  to  their  needs.  By  marrying  the 
captured  women  they  had  to  some  extent 
modified  their  original  type  ;  but  a  certain 
pride  of  blood  remained  in  them,  and  when 
their  number  had  increased  to  a  certain 
point,  they  closed  their  ranks  to  all  further 
intermixture  of  blood.  The  principle  thus 
established,  the  formation  of  castes  and  sub- 
castes  proceeded  apace.  The  caste  in  each  case 
stood  for  purity  ol  blood.  The  invaders  averted 
complete  amalgamation  with  the  inferior  race 
by  taking  women  but  not  giving  them.  They 
behaved  in  fact  towards  the  Dravidians  whom 
they  conquered  in  exactly  the  same  way  as  some 


94  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

planters  in  America  behaved  to  the  African 
slaves  whom  they  imported.  Manu,  for 
instance,  reserved  his  strongest  invective 
for  the  son  of  a  Brahman  woman  by  a  Sudra. 
He  described  him  as  "  that  lowest  of  mortals," 
and  condemned  him  to  live  outside  the  village, 
to  clothe  himself  in  the  garments  of  the  dead, 
to  eat  from  broken  dishes,  to  execute  criminals, 
and  to  carry  out  the  corpses  of  friendless  men. 
There  is  evidently  race  antagonism  and  colour 
prejudice  in  this. 

From  the  question  of  the  origin  of  caste 
we  may  now  turn  to  the  working  of  the 
institution  in  practice.  This  will  best  be  seen 
by  taking  specific  instances. 

Let  us  first  take  the  case  of  the  Rajputs 
as  they  are  found  in  Rajputana,  the  home 
of  the  race.  We  find  them  divided  into  a 
number  of  clans.  A  clansman  would  not 
describe  himself  merely  as  a  Rajput.  He  would 
add  that  he  is  a  "  Sisodia,"  a  "  Rathor,"  a 
"  Kachwaha,"  a  "  Jadon,"  and  so  on,  men- 
tioning his  clan.  The  caste  rule  under  which 
he  lives  requires  him  to  marry  a  Rajput 
woman  and  prohibits  him  from  marrying  a 
woman  of  his  own  clan.  He  is  thus  between 
two  circles.  He  may  not  marry  outside  the 
larger  circle,  and  he  may  not  marry  within 
the  inner  one.  The  larger  circle  is  known 
as  the  "  endogamous "  (gamos,  Greek  for 
marriage),  or  marrying-in  group.  The  smaller 


THE  CASTE  SYSTEM  9fi 

one  is  the  "  exogamous,"  or  marrying-out 
group.  The  "  endogamous  "  or  outer  group 
represents  the  man's  "  caste,"  in  this  case  the 
Rajput  caste  ;  and  the  "  exogamous  "  group 
is  his  sub-caste.  All  Rajputs  are  his  fellow- 
castemen,  but  Rajputs  of  his  clan  belong, 
as  it  were,  to  one  family.  As  a  Rajput  clan 
may  number  one  hundred  thousand  persons, 
his  circle  of  "  prohibited  degrees  "  may  be 
very  large.  Theoretically,  as  far  as  blood  is 
concerned,  our  Rajput  may  seek  a  wife  in 
any  Rajput  clan  except  his  own.  But 
practically  there  is  a  well-recognised  table 
of  precedence  among  the  clans,  and  our  Rajput, 
though  for  due  consideration  he  may  take 
his  wife  from  a  clan  below  his  own  on  the 
precedence  list,  cannot,  without  loss  of 
social  esteem,  give  his  daughter  to  a  Rajput 
of  a  lower  clan.  He  must  marry  his  daughter 
in  a  clan  either  above,  or  at  least  equal  to, 
his  own.  The  custom  is  known  as  "  hyper- 
gamy  "  or  marry ing-up.  In  it  we  see  the 
feeling  which  inspired  Manu's  invective  against 
marriages  of  women  with  men  of  lower 
degree.  It  is  a  very  inconvenient  custom, 
and  is  largely  responsible  for  the  existence 
in  the  past  of  the  barbarous  practice  of  female 
infanticide.  The  higher  the  clan,  the  greater 
is  the  clansman's  difficulty  to  find  a  husband 
for  his  daughter ;  and  as  an  unmarried 
daughter  is  a  disgrace  to  the  house,  the 


96  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

punctilious  Rajput  in  old  days  made  away 
with  baby  daughters. 

In  other  matters  our  Rajput  has  to  observe 
caste  customs  at  every  turn.  He  must  not 
allow  a  widow  in  his  family  to  re- marry,  much 
less  himself  marry  a  widow.  His  wife  must 
keep  purdah.  He  must  see  that  his  daughters 
are  married  at  an  age  when  English  girls  are 
scarcely  out  of  the  nursery.  He  may  not 
dine  with  any  one  who  is  not  a  Rajput.  He 
may  accept  water,  if  on  a  journey,  from 
certain  castes,  but  not  from  others.  He 
ought  not  to  touch  a  plough  or  engage  in 
menial  occupation.  To  disobey  these  rules 
does  not  necessarily  mean  loss  of  caste  ; 
that  penalty  is  reserved  for  the  worst  offences. 
But  disobedience  invariably  means  some 
loss  of  caste  esteem. 

The  instance  of  the  Rajput  clans  of  Rajpu- 
tana  that  we  have  taken  is  in  some  ways 
peculiar.  They  are  organised  more  on  the 
tribal  than  on  the  caste  system,  as  the  latter 
is  usually  understood.  The  caste  system 
in  the  present  day  very  largely  turns,  as  will 
be  seen  later  on,  on  occupation ;  and  the 
tendency  is  to  form  smaller  and  smaller 
"  endogamous "  groups,  outside  of  which 
the  casteman  must  not  marry.  In  Rajputana 
the  status  of  a  Rajput  comes  not  from  occupa- 
tion but  from  descent.  The  poorest  clansman 
deems  himself  and  is  deemed  by  his  fellows 


THE  CASTE  SYSTEM  97 

the  equal  of  his  chief,  and  between  Rajput 
and  Rajput,  notwithstanding  the  numerous 
clans,  there  is  no  caste  restriction.  All  this 
seems  to  show  that  the  institution  has  fallen 
lightly  upon  the  Rajputs,  and  that  we  are 
really  in  presence  of  an  ancient  tribal  organi- 
sation which,  though  it  has  been  absorbed 
into  Hinduism  and  transformed  into  a  caste, 
resembles  in  many  ways  the  highland  clans 
of  Scotland  two  hundred  years  ago. 

The  Mahrattas  and  the  Jats  are  two  other 
important  instances  of  castes  of  tribal  if  not 
national  type.  The  Mahratta  race  is  widely 
diffused  over  the  Bombay  Presidency,  and  is 
four  millions  strong.  The  whole  race  practi- 
cally constitutes  one  caste  for  marriage  and 
for  other  purposes.  A  Mahratta  is  a  Mahratta 
by  descent  and  his  status  is  not  affected  by 
his  occupation,  though  he  is  generally  a 
cultivator.  The  Jats  in  the  Punjab  are  what 
the  Mahrattas  are  in  the  Deccan.  They  are 
the  dominant  tribe  of  owners  and  cultivators  ; 
and  like  the  Mahrattas  they  form  a  single 
caste.  What  is  also  interesting  is  that 
Brahmanical  Hinduism  sits  lightly  upon  the 
Jats.  They  allow  widow  marriage  and  they 
follow  their  own  tribal  customs  in  matters 
of  inheritance  and  the  like  without  regard 
to  Hindu  law.  Indeed,  there  is  some  reason 
to  think  that  Mahrattas  and  Jats  were 
Scythian  tribes  who  came  into  India  at  a 


98    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

comparatively  late  date  and  never  fully 
assimilated  the  Hindu  ideas  of  caste. 

These  ideas  are  seen  to  perfection  among 
the  Brahmans  themselves.  Theoretically,  all 
Brahmans  form  one  caste.  But  the  practice 
is  very  different.  They  are  split  up  into 
an  immense  number  of  groups  and  sub-groups, 
and  these  groups  and  sub-groups  for  matri- 
monial and  other  purposes  are  classified  in  a 
most  intricate  fashion.  A  Brahman  may 
not  marry  inside  his  own  sub-group,  and  he 
may  marry  only  with  one  or  other  of  a  few 
specified  groups  or  sub-groups.  A  Brahman's 
wife  must  not  only  be  a  Brahman,  but  she 
must  be  a  Brahman  of  a  certain  group.  In 
one  province  alone  there  are  two  hundred 
major  groups  of  Brahmans,  none  of  which 
allow  intermarriages.  A  Brahman  of  one 
group  may  even  object  to  take  water  from  a 
Brahman  of  another  group.  How  is  this  to 
be  explained  ?  The  underlying  general  cause 
is  no  doubt  intense  pride  in  the  supreme 
position  of  the  Brahman  relative  to  the  rest 
of  mankind,  and  an  equally  intense  fear  of 
pollution  through  contact  with  unclean  or 
degrading  persons  or  things.  There  are  many 
Brahmans  who  follow  occupations  which  are 
considered  degrading.  They  sink  in  the 
social  scale,  and  this  in  India  means  loss  of 
caste  privileges. 

So  far  we  have  dealt  with  castes  of  the 


THE  CASTE  SYSTEM  99 

highest  standing.  Below  them  there  is 
an  immense  array  of  lower  castes.  The 
census  enumerates  over  two  thousand  three 
hundred  minor  castes.  The  number  of 
minor  castes  is  innumerable.  The  names 
of  many  of  the  most  widely  diffused  castes 
indicate  occupations.  There  is  the  writer 
caste,  the  herdsmen  caste,  the  milkmen  caste, 
the  blacksmiths,  the  village  watchmen,  and 
so  on.  Community  of  occupation  or  function 
has  evidently  in  these  cases  formed  the  basis 
of  caste  division.  Each  of  these  castes 
professes  to  have  a  traditional  occupation, 
though  many  of  the  members  have  abandoned 
it.  A  blacksmith  or  a  herdsman  will  often 
be  found  among  the  cultivators  of  a  village. 
And  as  occupations  change,  new  castes  and 
sub-castes  are  thrown  up.  The  Chumar 
caste  works  in  hides  and  leather,  and  is 
regarded  as  unclean.  But  if  a  group  in  the 
caste  should  take  to  a  more  cleanly  occupation, 
it  will  tend  to  form  itself  into  a  separate 
caste,  will  probably  change  its  name,  and  so 
rise  in  the  social  scale.  We  are  not  un- 
acquainted in  our  own  country  with  the  art 
of  rising  in  the  world.  There  are  gradations 
of  respectability,  and  men  ordinarily  find 
their  wives  in  their  own  class.  But  the 
peculiarity  of  the  Indian  system  is  that  the 
groups  are  much  more  permanent  than  with 
us,  that  they  repel  each  other,  that  intercourse 

DS 


100    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

is  prohibited  by  social  and  religious  penalties, 
and  that  the  individual,  however  high  he  may 
rise,  carries  his  caste  and  its  disabilities  about 
him  till  his  death. 

Caste  is  enforced  by  means  of  governing 
communities,  often  called  panchayats.  The 
caste  may  be  likened  to  a  guild  or  trades  union, 
and  governs  itself.  It  sees  that  no  member 
of  the  caste  engages  in  a  degrading  occupation, 
works  for  lower  wages  than  his  brethren,  eats 
forbidden  food,  or  marries  a  woman  of  another 
caste.  The  extreme  penalty  is  expulsion. 
No  one  will  then  eat  or  drink  with  the  offender, 
visit  his  house,  or  marry  his  daughter.  The 
Brahman  will  not  serve  him,  the  barber  will 
not  shave  him,  the  washerman  will  not  wash 
for  him. 

Attempts  have  been  made  in  different  parts 
of  India  to  form  a  precedence  table  of  castes, 
in  the  order  of  social  esteem  in  which  they  are 
held  by  Hindus  in  the  present  day.  The 
higher  castes  present  no  great  difficulty.  The 
Brahman  heads  the  list  in  all  provinces, 
followed  by  the  modern  representatives  of  the 
"  twice-born  "  classes.  Below  the  "  twice 
born  "  no  uniform  arrangement  has  proved 
possible.  In  northern  India  there  are  a  good 
many  castes  of  moderate  respectability  from 
whom  most  Brahmans  will  take  water.  These 
correspond  to  the  fourth  or  "  clean  "  Sudra 
class  of  Manu's  code.  Below  these  are  classes 


THE  CASTE  SYSTEM  101 

from  whom  Brahmans  will  not  take  water, 
but  whose  touch  does  not  pollute.  Below 
these  again  come  the  "  untouchables.'*  But 
even  here  there  are  degrees.  Inasmuch  as 
the  cow  is  sacred,  the  extreme  of  untouch- 
ability  is  reached  by  castes  that  will  eat  its 
flesh.  In  southern  India,  where  Brahmanism 
has  its  stronghold,  an  extremely  elaborate  code 
of  pollution  exists.  There  are  castes  whose 
members  defile  a  Brahman  at  a  distance  of 
twenty-four  or  thirty-six  or  even  sixty-four 
feet,  as  the  case  may  be.  They  carry  an 
atmosphere  of  impurity  about  them.  They 
may  not  enter  a  Hindu  temple  of  the  humblest 
sort,  or  pass  through  the  high  caste  quarter 
of  the  village.  When  they  see  a  Brahman 
they  must  leave  the  road  or  announce  their 
approach  by  a  special  cry,  like  lepers  in  the 
middle  ages.  The  very  word  "  pariah  "  of 
our  dictionaries  comes  from  the  name  of  the 
great  labouring  caste  (the  Paraiyan)  of  the 
southern  districts  of  Madras.  They  to  men 
of  the  higher  castes  are  unclean  and  polluted. 
Few  of  us  when  we  use  the  word  actually 
realise  the  full  infamy  of  its  meaning  in  its 
country  of  origin. 

The  "  depressed  classes  "  in  India  form  a 
vast  multitude.  Their  numbers  are  estimated 
at  from  fifty  to  sixty  millions.  A  question 
that  is  agitating  Hinduism  at  the  present 
moment  is  as  to  whether  these  classes  should 


102  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

be  counted  as  Hindus  or  not.  Ten  years  ago 
the  answer  would  have  been  emphatically  in 
the  negative.  Even  now  the  conservative 
feeling  of  the  country  is  for  their  exclusion. 
But  the  conscience  of  the  more  advanced 
section  of  the  educated  Hindus  is  a  little 
sensitive  on  the  point.  It  is  awkward  to  be  re- 
minded by  rival  Muhammadan  politicians  that 
more  than  one-third  of  the  supposed  total 
Hindu  population  is  not  accepted  by  Hindus 
as  a  part  of  themselves,  is  not  allowed  the 
ministration  of  Brahman  priests,  is  excluded 
from  Hindu  shrines.  It  is  obviously  desirable 
in  presence  of  such  an  argument  to  claim  the 
"  depressed  castes "  as  within  the  pale  of 
Hinduism.  But  if  they  are  to  be  so  reckoned, 
logic  demands  that  they  should  be  treated 
with  greater  consideration  than  at  present. 
Educated  Hindus  see  this,  and  the  uplifting 
of  these  castes  figures  prominently  on  the 
programmes  of  Indian  social  conferences. 
But  the  stoutest-hearted  reformer  admits  to 
himself  that  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of 
effective  action  in  this  matter  are  great, 
so  strong  is  the  hold  that  caste  has  on  the 
Indian  mind. 

An  instance  will  best  illustrate  this.  In 
the  south  of  India  there  is  a  large  and  im- 
portant sect  known  as  the  Lingayats  or 
worshippers  of  Siva.  The  sect  arose  in  the 
twelfth  century  as  a  protest  against  Brah- 


THE  CASTE  SYSTEM  103 

manical  arrogance.  It  repudiated  caste  distinc- 
tions, rejected  (as  it  rejects  to  this  day)  the 
ministrations  of  Brahman  priests,  and  took 
its  members  from  all  classes.  But  a  reaction 
set  in.  The  descendants  of  the  original  con- 
verts formed  themselves  into  a  high  caste 
section,  ciosed  their  ranks,  and  refused  to 
marry  or  eat  with  the  rest  of  the  community. 
The  latter  in  a  similar  way  formed  themselves 
into  separate  sub-castes  based  on  the  social 
distinctions  which  the  founder  had  expressly 
abjured.  In  the  1901  census  the  Lingayat 
community  asked  to  be  recorded  as  Lingayat 
Brahmans,  Lingayat  Vaisyas,  Lingayat  Sudras, 
as  the  case  might  be,  thus  claiming  the  very 
caste  divisions  which  their  founder  had 
repudiated.  In  short  caste  is  in  the  air  of 
India.  It  infects  Muhammadans.  It  even 
affects  the  communities  of  Indian  Christians. 
The  early  Roman  Catholic  missionaries  re- 
tained it  among  their  converts.  It  is  one  of 
the  most  serious  questions  with  which  modern 
missionary  bodies  have  to  deal. 

It  is  easy  to  say  hard  things  of  the  caste 
system  and  to  point  to  its  defects.  The  two 
practices  of  infant  marriage  and  perpetual 
widowhood  are  so  opposed  to  western  ideas 
that  any  institution  with  which  they  are 
bound  up  or  which  encourages  them  seems  to 
be  self-condemned.  Of  infant  marriage  as 
practised  in  Bengal  there  can  be  no  defence. 


104    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

But  a  more  rational  custom  prevails  elsewhere, 
and  the  instances  of  the  Rajput  clans  of  Raj- 
putana  and  of  the  Jats  of  the  Punjab  show 
that  the  caste  system  in  this  respect  is  capable 
of  reform.  The  instance  of  the  Jats  again 
shows  that  the  prohibition  of  widow  marriage 
is  not  an  essential  feature  of  the  caste  system, 
though  it  is  in  accord  with  the  Brahmanical 
theory  of  marriage  and  with  the  sentiments 
of  the  great  mass  of  the  population.  From 
the  western  point  of  view  the  whole  position 
of  women  in  India  is  wrong.  But  the  West 
is  not  the  East,  and  the  conservative  Hindu 
would  probably  say  that  as  things  are  in 
the  East  the  caste  system,  with  its  doctrine 
that  every  woman  should  always  be  under 
male  guardianship,  makes  for  the  security  of 
the  family.  The  perpetuation  of  the  family 
and  the  purity  of  its  blood  are  the  root  ideas 
of  Hinduism.  It  is  impossible  to  judge  the 
institution  of  caste  fairly  unless  the  Hindu 
position  is  understood. 

Caste  may  also  be  attacked  as  destructive 
of  the  spirit  of  humanity  and  incompatible 
with  national  life.  That  it  narrows  the 
circle  of  human  sympathy  is  obvious  ;  and 
the  absence  of  any  sense  of  nationality  has 
always  been  a  characteristic  of  the  Indian 
peoples.  On  the  other  hand  it  may  be  said 
of  caste  that  within  a  limited  range  it  shows 
extraordinary  power  of  evoking  sympathy  and 


THE  CASTE  SYSTEM  105 

action  for  the  common  good  and  of  maintaining 
the  traditional  moral  law.  The  caste  man  is 
not  an  isolated  unit.  He  is  a  member  of  a 
community,  however  humble  it  may  be.  Its 
restraints  are  always  upon  him.  Its  penalties 
are  heavy  and  effective.  Conservative  Hindus 
dread  any  weakening  of  this  bond,  perceiving 
nothing  that  would  take  its  place. 

Is  caste  decaying  ?  A  confident  answer  is 
not  possible.  The  spread  of  western  education 
in  India,  the  habit  of  travel,  the  growth  of 
social  and  political  discussion  are  powerful 
dissolvents.  But  as  yet  they  affect  a  very 
limited  class.  Close  observers  tell  us  that  the 
tendency  to  confine  inter-marriage  to  the 
narrowest  circle  within  the  caste  was  never 
stronger,  and  that  infant  marriage  and 
perpetual  widowhood  are  usages  by  no  means 
on  the  decline. 


CHAPTER   V 

RELIGIONS 

THE  three  great  religions  of  India  are  Hinduism, 
Muhammadanism,  and  Buddhism.  Buddhism 
is  now  practically  confined  to  Burma,  though 
as  we  have  seen  in  the  historical  section  it 
was  the  state  religion  of  India  for  some 
centuries  before  and  after  the  birth  of  Christ. 
The  continent  of  India  proper  is  partitioned 
between  Muhammadanism  and  Hinduism 
in  unequal  proportions,  the  Hindus  out- 
numbering the  Moslems  by  more  than  three 
to  one.  Outside  these  great  historical  religions 
there  are  other  creeds  which  have  a  substantial 
number  of  adherents  in  India.  There  are  in 
round  numbers  nearly  four  million  Christians, 
three  millions  Sikhs,  over  one  million  Jains. 
And  lastly  there  are  some  ten  millions  of  per- 
sons belonging  to  aboriginal  and  half-civilised 
tribes  who  for  want  of  a  better  term  are 
classed  as  "  animists." 

Hinduism  and  Muhammadanism  are  poles 
apart.  The  one  is  the  antithesis  of  the  other. 
Hinduism  is  the  genuine  product  of  the 

106 


RELIGIONS  107 

Indian  mind,  It  is  at  once  subtle  and  gross, 
spiritual  and  sensual.  It  is  accommodating 
and  elastic,  ready  to  absorb  other  rites  and 
superstitions  and  to  find  a  place  among  its 
own  divinities  for  other  strange  gods.  It  has 
a  priesthood  for  sacrificial  purposes,  but  no 
church,  no  official  organisation.  It  has  no 
clear-cut  religious  tradition  or  dogmatic  code. 
It  is  intensely  aristocratic  and  anti-social. 
So  far  from  believing  that  all  men  are  equal 
it  grades  them  into  castes  and  it  pronounces 
most  of  them  unclean.  Muhammadanism  on 
the  other  hand  is  foreign  to  the  soil.  It  is 
not  Aryan  but  Semitic.  It  is  a  badge  of 
conquest.  It  is  a  clear-cut,  definite  creed ;  the 
creed  of  a  single  book,  the  Koran.  It  allows 
no  compromise  or  accommodations  with 
other  faiths.  It  is  sternly  monotheistic. 
There  is  one  God,  and  He  is  to  be  worshipped 
without  image  or  symbol.  It  regards  a  re- 
ligion such  as  popular  Hinduism  as  gross  idol- 
worship,  a  thing  to  be  put  down  summarily, 
It  is  intensely  democratic.  It  knows  nothing 
of  caste  distinctions.  In  Islam  all  men  are 
equal.  Religions  so  opposed  could  not 
amalgamate  without  losing  their  identities. 
But  they  may  keep  on  good  terms  with  each 
other ;  and  when  exciting  causes  are  not 
present  this  is  generally  the  case  in  India.  The 
Hindu  in  quiet  times  is  disposed  to  regard  his 
Muhammadan  neighbour  as  belonging  to  a 


108    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

separate  caste  with  which  he  has  no  com- 
munion, but  which  has  as  good  a  right  to 
exist  as  have  those  Hindu  castes  with 
the  members  of  which  he  does  not  eat 
or  drink.  The  Muhammadan  regards 
Hinduism  as  the  religion  of  the  country 
and  as  having  on  that  account  a  title 
to  respect.  In  some  parts  of  India  Hindus 
and  Muhammadans  are  on  quite  friendly 
terms.  They  will  assist  each  other  in  their 
respective  religious  festivals  and  processions. 
They  will  occasionally  worship  at  each  others' 
shrines.  But  everywhere  this  happy  state 
of  things  is  not  found.  There  are  towns  and 
districts  where  the  two  religions  face  each  other 
like  armies  on  a  battle-field,  and  where  the 
slightest  provocation  given  by  one  side  or  the 
other  will  bring  on  furious  riots  and  bloodshed. 
A  cow  slaughtered  in  the  Hindu  quarter,  or  a 
dead  pig  thrown  into  a  Muhammadan  mosque 
is  the  certain  warning  of  coming  trouble. 
It  is  then  that  the  special  function  of  British 
rule  becomes  apparent.  It  has  to  keep  the 
peace  of  India. 

What  is  Hinduism  ?  What  are  its  tenets 
and  its  sects  ?  How  is  it  marked  off  from 
Buddhism  or  other  indigenous  religions,  or 
from  the  various  primitive  beliefs  that  are 
grouped  under  the  term  "  animism"  ?  These 
questions  do  not  admit  of  clear  and  precise 
answers.  If  we  were  to  ask  a  Hindu  scholar, 


RELIGIONS  109 

a  student  of  the  Sanskrit  sacred  texts,  he 
would  refer  us  to  these  texts  and  tell  us  that 
they  explain  what  Hinduism  is.  But  this  is 
only  postponing  the  difficulty.  For  the  texts 
cover  an  immense  tract  of  time  and  do  not 
speak  with  the  same  voice.  We  begin  in  the 
Vedas  with  the  great  "  nature  "  gods — the 
Sun,  the  Sky,  the  Dawn,  the  Storm — and 
with  simple  sacrifices  and  oblations  by  which 
they  are  to  be  honoured  by  the  householder. 
There  is  no  trace  in  the  Vedas  of  the  belief 
in  the  transmigration  of  souls  which  is  now 
a  fundamental  principle  of  Hindu  religion.  In 
the  later  text-books  the  "  nature "  gods  give 
place  to  Brahma,  Siva,  Vishnu,  and  other 
major  deities  of  the  Hindu  pantheon  as  we 
know  it ;  and  the  doctrines  of  caste  and 
transmigration,  the  sanctity  and  superiority 
of  the  Brahman,  the  merit  of  sacrifice  correctly 
performed  by  him,  come  to  the  front.  Still 
later  on  in  the  early  centuries  of  the  Christian 
era  great  additions  were  made  to  the  number  of 
deities  worshipped  and  extraordinary  legends 
and  myths  to  account  for  them  were  invented. 
Vishnu,  as  the  god  who  preserved  the  world, 
was  given  many  shapes  and  was  described  as 
having  appeared  to  man  in  many  forms. 
His  two  most  popular  incarnations  are 
Rama,  the  hero  prince  of  the  Ramayana  epic, 
and  Krishna,  one  of  the  great  characters  in 
the  Mahabharata.  Rama  and  Krishna  to 


110    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

this  day  count  their  worshippers  by  millions. 
There  is  hardly  a  Hindu  peasant  in  upper  India 
who  is  ignorant  of  these  romantic  personages 
or  who  fails  to  identify  them  with  Vishnu. 
It  is  conjectured  that  in  these  additions  to 
Hindu  mythology  and  worship  we  have  the 
process  by  which  the  indigenous  races  of  India 
were  brought  under  Brahmanical  influence, 
and  their  deities  admitted  to  honour  and 
connected  by  means  of  myths  with  the  Aryan 
gods.  This  explanation  is  certainly  in 
harmony  with  the  increased  grossness  and 
superstition  found  in  the  later  text-books  and 
manuals  of  popular  Hinduism,  and  it  is  borne 
out  by  what  actually  takes  place  at  the 
present  day  in  the  wilder  parts  of  India. 
Accurate  observers  have  described  the  steps 
by  which  an  uncivilised  forest  tribe,  whose 
beliefs  are  limited  to  vague  ideas  about  ghosts 
and  goblins  and  spirits  dwelling  in  rocks  and 
trees  and  streams,  comes  over  to  Brahmanism, 
bringing  with  it  old  superstitions  and  worship 
and  retaining  them  under  Hindu  forms. 

The  text-books  therefore  will  not  help  us  to 
define  Hinduism,  unless  we  are  restricted  to 
particular  books,  chosen  either  on  account  of 
their  antiquity  or  of  their  contents.  It 
may  possibly  be  thought  that  the  Vedas  alone 
should  be  taken  as  the  test  of  what  Hinduism 
is.  This  test  has  often  approved  itself  to 
Indian  religious  reformers,  but  its  defect  is 


RELIGIONS  111 

that  it  excludes  at  least  nine-tenths  of  what 
Hinduism  to-day  accepts  as  fundamental. 
Reformers  who  appeal  to  the  Vedas  end  by 
forming  sects.  Even  if  they  and  their 
communities  continue  Hindu  in  name  they 
are  put  out  of  caste  and  regarded  as 
unorthodox  by  the  great  mass  of  professing 
Hindus. 

The  Vedas  alone  will  not  therefore  serve 
at  a  test.  Near  to  the  Vedas  in  order  of  time 
are  certain  ancient  and  revered  ritual  books 
and  commentaries,  known  as  Brahmanas 
and  Upanishads,  which  date  back  several 
centuries  before  the  Christian  era.  Shall  we 
find  in  them  what  Hinduism  is?  The 
fundamental  ideas  of  Hinduism  are  certainly 
to  be  found  there.  But  we  are  met  with  the 
difficulty  that  the  Brahmanas  have  one  voice 
and  the  Upanishads  another.  The  Brahmanas 
are  concerned  with  the  ceremonies  of  sacrifice 
and  with  the  blessings  which  a  sacrifice 
correctly  offered  by  a  Brahman  will  bring 
to  the  offerer  in  this  world  and  hereafter. 
The  Upanishads  teach  the  futility  of  sacrifice 
and  the  necessity  for  knowledge ;  and  the 
knowledge  they  teach  is  how  the  individual 
soul  may  escape  from  earthly  existence  by 
absorption  into  the  world-soul.  This  world- 
soul  (atman  or  brahma)  is  conceived  as  the 
eternal  essence  animating  nature.  The  indi- 
vidual soul  and  the  world-soul  are  identical, 


112    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

and    correct    knowledge    according    to    the 
Upanishads  consists  in  realising  this. 

Thus  in  the  earliest  religious  Hindu  books 
following  the  Vedas  there  are  two  distinct 
religious  systems,  the  one  concerned  with 
concrete  gods  and  goddesses  that  required 
to  be  daily  appeased  through  rites  and 
sacrifices,  with  the  veneration  of  Brahmans, 
and  with  their  divine  nature  and  priesthood ; 
the  other  holding  all  these  things  to  be  vanity 
and  illusion,  preaching  the  weariness  of  the 
flesh,  and  striving  to  escape  from  individual 
existence  through  the  gateway  of  true 
knowledge.  These  two  systems  went  their 
separate  ways  and  increasingly  diverged. 
The  ceremonial  religion  grew  more  and  more 
extravagant  and  grotesque.  The  reveries  of 
the  Upanishads  hardened  into  a  systematic 
theology,  taking  different  forms  in  the  hands 
of  different  teachers.  These  men  developed 
the  tremendous  doctrines  of  karma  and  trans- 
migration. Karma  literally  means  action, 
or  what  is  brought  about  by  action ;  and 
transmigration  implies  an  unbroken  chain  of 
existences.  As  a  man  soweth  that  shall  he 
reap ;  if  not  in  his  present  life  at  all  events 
in  another  life  in  some  better  or  worse  shape. 
Karma  was  thus  the  fate  or  destiny  of  man, 
and  to  make  the  best  of  it  right  knowledge 
and  the  dispelling  of  ignorance  were  required. 
The  different  teachers  busied  themselves  with 


RELIGIONS  113 

providing  the  right  knowledge.  The  best 
known  and  still  most  popular  school,  known 
as  the  Vedanta  or  "  goal  of  the  Veda," 
elaborated  the  immature  thought  of  the 
Upanishads.  It  worked  out  the  doctrine  of 
maya  or  illusion.  "There  is  one  thing, 
Brahma ;  there  is  nothing  else  " ;  that  is, 
God  is  all.  There  is  no  real  universe,  no 
reality  of  experience.  What  appears  solid 
earth  or  pain  or  pleasure,  are  mere  dreams. 
They  are  nightmares  to  be  escaped  from, 
and  the  only  way  of  escape  is  by  getting  rid 
of  all  desire,  and  so  breaking  the  chain  of 
existence ;  the  individual  spirit  will  then 
merge  into  the  universal  spirit  and  so  find 
reality.  To  the  western  mind  this  sounds 
very  melancholy  and  unpractical.  Another 
and  later  school  of  Hindu  religious  philosophy, 
that  has  had  and  still  has  great  influence, 
is  more  akin  to  Christian  thought.  It  held 
that  individual  souls  were  distinct  from  the 
world-soul ;  it  taught  that  man's  error  lay 
in  want  of  faith  or  trust,  not  in  ignorance ; 
and  it  placed  his  salvation,  or  release  from 
successive  existences,  in  faith  or  love  of  the 
supreme  being. 

But  it  may  be  asked  "  Are  not  these  specula- 
tions mere  philosophies  of  the  closet;  have 
they  anything  to  do  with  Hinduism  as  a 
religion  ?  "  Strange  to  say  they  have.  They 
are  interwoven  with  the  fabric  of  Hindu 


114  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

popular  beliefs.  They  account  for  the  re- 
signation and  the  mild  pessimism  of  the  Hindu 
mind.  They  have  made  transmigration  and 
karma  very  real  things  to  the  humblest  and 
most  unlettered  peasant.  They  have  given 
him  the  idea  that  spirit  is  everywhere  behind 
matter.  He  may  worship  many  gods,  demons 
and  deified  heroes ;  but  he  dimly  believes  that 
they  are  part  of  a  greater  unity.  In  his 
actual  observances  he  may  be  classed  as  a 
polytheist,  one  who  has  many  gods ;  but 
mentally  he  is  a  pantheist,  one  who  sees  God 
in  everything.  Sitting  beneath  a  pipal  or 
"  sacred  fig "  tree  the  present  writer  has 
heard  a  peasant  say  "  Parameshwar "  (the 
lord  of  all)  "is  in  this  tree;  he  is  in  the 
roots  ;  he  is  in  the  leaves  ;  he  is  everywhere 
in  the  world."  The  rustic  spoke  the  thought 
of  the  Vedanta.  Yet  in  his  everyday  obser- 
vances, his  veneration  of  Brahmans,  his 
pilgrimage  to  sacred  rivers  and  holy  shrines, 
he  was  an  ordinary  Hindu  indistinguishable 
from  the  crowd.  It  may  be  added  that  the 
link  between  philosophic  and  popular  Hindu- 
ism is  supplied  by  the  great  epic  poems  of 
India,  especially  the  Ramayana.  Large  por- 
tions of  these  poems  reproduce  the  spiritual 
and  speculative  ideas  of  the  early  sages.  An 
adaptation  of  the  Ramayana  made  in  the 
speech  of  the  people  by  a  genuine  poet  and 
religious  reformer,  Tulsi  Das,  at  the  end  of 


RELIGIONS  115 

the  sixteenth  century,  is  the  bible  of  the 
peasant  in  northern  India.  In  telling  the 
story  of  the  hero  prince  Rama,  the  god 
Vishnu  in  human  form,  the  author  has  brought 
in  his  own  lofty  conceptions  of  a  personal  god, 
and  of  reunion  with  him  through  passionate 
faith  and  devotion.  Ignorant,  superstitious, 
caste-ridden  and  idolatrous  though  the  average 
Hindu  is,  he  is  not  without  glimpses  of  purer 
and  more  spiritual  ideas.  And  to  this  fact 
and  to  the  essentially  religious  cast  of  the 
Hindu  mind  is  due  the  frequent  rise  in  India 
of  new  sects  and  reformed  beliefs.  Any 
earnest,  spiritually-minded  teacher  can  count 
on  a  following  of  devoted  disciples.  The  pity 
is  that  in  such  cases  the  new  light  should  so 
speedily  grow  dim.  The  sect  may  live,  but 
its  beliefs  and  practices  usually  become  as 
gross  and  superstitious  as  those  of  popular 
Hinduism. 

So  far  we  have  not  discovered  from  the 
Brahmanic  scriptures  what  Hinduism  is.  In 
them  the  boldest  philosophic  speculation 
goes  hand  in  hand  with  popular  polytheism 
of  the  crudest  kind.  Many  attempts  to  de- 
fine Hinduism  have  been  made.  A  Hindu 
authority  defined  it  as  "  what  the  Hindus  or 
a  major  portion  of  the  Hindus  do."  A 
distinguished  English  authority  described  it 
as  "  the  collection  of  rites,  worships,  beliefs, 
traditions  and  mythologies  that  are  sanctioned 


116    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

by  the  sacred  books  and  ordinances  of  the 
Brahmans,  and  are  propagated  by  Brahmanic 
teaching."  It  has  also  been  called  "  a 
tangled  jungle  of  disorderly  superstitions, 
ghosts  and  demons,  demi-gods,  and  deified 
saints,  household  gods,  tribal  gods,  universal 
gods,  with  their  countless  shrines  and  temples 
and  the  din  of  their  discordant  rites — deities 
who  abhor  a  fly's  death,  and  those  who  delight 
still  in  human  victims."  Popular  Hinduism 
is  thus  something  very  different  from  our 
ordinary  notion  of  a  religion.  It  is  largely  a 
social  system,  founded  no  doubt  on  the  Vedas 
and  the  post-Vedic  scriptures,  but  with  little 
real  connection  with  them  save  on  three  or  four 
points.  These  are  veneration  for  Brahmans, 
the  caste  system,  the  doctrine  of  karma  and 
transmigration  of  souls,  and  the  holiness  of 
the  cow.  But  the  basis  of  the  whole  fabric 
is  the  divine  right  of  the  Brahmans.  "  A  man 
may  disbelieve  in  the  Hindu  trinity ;  he  may 
invent  new  gods  of  his  own,  however  foul  and 
impure ;  he  may  worship  them  with  the  most 
revolting  orgies ;  he  may  even  abandon  all 
belief  in  supernatural  powers,  and  yet  remain 
a  Hindu.  But  he  must  reverence  and  feed 
the  Brahmans,  he  must  abide  by  caste  rules 
and  restrictions,  he  must  preserve  himself  from 
ceremonial  pollution,  and  from  contact  and 
communion  with  the  unclean." 
It  seems  strange  to  us,  to  whom  a  church  is 


RELIGIONS  117 

an  organised  community  with  a  defined  creed 
and  an  administrative  body,  to  find  that  Hin- 
duism has  none  of  these  things.  There  is  no 
pope  or  high  priest  or  church  council  to 
pronounce  decisions  or  prescribe  rites.  There 
is  no  ecclesiastical  capital  or  centre.  There 
are  places  noted  for  learned  scholars  or 
pandits,  such  as  Benares,  Muttra,  or  Tanjore ; 
and  the  collective  opinion  of  these  persons,  if 
given,  will  carry  weight  among  certain  classes 
of  Hindus  within  a  certain  radius.  But 
that  is  all.  Worshippers  of  Vishnu  under 
any  of  his  various  forms — Krishna,  Rama, 
Jagannath — would  not  accept  the  ruling  of 
Saivite  pandits,  that  is,  followers  of  Siva  ; 
and  vice  versa.  Nor  is  there  any  certain  way 
of  enforcing  a  decision.  Thus  Hinduism,  so 
far  as  internal  government  goes,  is  a  chaos. 
And  as  a  result  of  this  it  is  perpetually  trans- 
forming itself,  splitting  up  into  sects,  taking 
in  new  deities,  adopting  new  forms  of  worship. 
Taking  first  the  orthodox  mass  of  Hindus, 
they  roughly  divide  themselves  into  Saivites 
or  adherents  of  Siva  and  Vishnuites  or 
adherents  of  Vishnu.  The  division  is  not  a 
hard  and  fast  one,  as  a  person  may  and  often 
does  worship  both.  But  the  division  is 
important  in  this  way,  that  it  leads  to  sub- 
divisions. Thus  the  adherent  of  Siva  or 
Mahadeo  (the  great  god)  is  very  likely  to 
address  himself  to  one  of  Siva's  goddess 


118  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

wives,  of  whom  there  are  many,  following  in 
each  case  the  appropriate  ritual.  The  god 
himself  is  satisfied  with  a  few  flowers  and  a 
little  water.  His  wife,  the  grim  and  savage 
goddess  Kali,  whose  debased  worship  is 
popular  in  Bengal,  requires  the  blood  of 
victims.  In  the  same  part  of  India  other 
female  deities  are  worshipped  with  obscene 
and  abominable  rites.  Vishnuites  may  do 
honour  to  Vishnu  under  any  of  his  numerous 
human  shapes.  In  Oudh  he  is  Rama,  the 
brave  hero  of  romance.  In  Muttra  he  is 
Krishna,  the  amorous  prince  of  cowherds.  In 
Orissa  he  is  the  famous  Jagannath,  the  "  lord 
of  the  world."  The  last  case  is  instructive  as 
illustrating  the  way  in  which  a  purely  local 
god  is  taken  over  by  Brahmans  and  identified 
as  one  of  the  great  gods  of  classical  Hinduism. 
Jagannath's  round  shapeless  head  and  armless 
stumps  recall  the  rude  idol  of  some  primitive 
tribe,  and  the  legends  about  him  are  evidently 
of  local  origin.  But  by  the  simple  process 
of  making  him  one  of  Vishnu's  numerous 
appearances  on  earth,  the  primitive  god  and 
his  exploits  have  been  placed  to  tne  credit  of 
Brahmanism. 

Besides  the  great  gods  and  goddesses  of 
Brahmanic  tradition  rural  India  has  its  own 
local  divinities.  Those  who  know  the  Indian 
peasant  say  that  he  is  quite  as  much  concerned 
with  the  unnamed  powers  of  his  village  as 


RELIGIONS  119 

with  the  recognised  deities.  These  "  god- 
lings,"  as  they  are  called,  are  purely  local, 
often  without  distinct  names  or  functions. 
Their  presence  is  denoted  by  a  rough  idol 
or  a  single  block  of  stone  or  wood  placed  under 
a  tree  or  rock,  or  on  some  high  place.  It  is 
daubed  with  vermilion  colour  as  a  token  of 
reverence.  There  the  women  will  make 
simple  offerings  of  milk  or  fruit,  or  light  a 
lamp  at  night.  Some  are  kindly  spirits  who 
watch  over  the  village.  Others  are  harmful 
and  have  to  be  propitiated.  But  whether 
kindly  or  harmful  they  are  closer  to  the 
peasant  than  the  great  gods  of  the  Brahmans, 
and  are  bound  up  with  'his  ihouse,  his  fields, 
and  his  cattle.  They  can  also  be  worshipped 
without  priestly  help.  They  have  come 
down  to  him  from  primitive  times  when  as  yet 
there  were  no  Vedic  scriptures  and  Brahmanic 
ritual.  They  represent  the  belief  of  uncivil- 
ised man  in  an  unseen  company  of  spirits 
and  ghosts,  peopling  all  the  objects  about  him. 
They  are  old  pagan  superstitions,  which  he 
retains  along  with  a  vague  belief  in  the  Vedas, 
a  very  real  reverence  for  Brahmans,  and  a 
distant  respect  for  the  great  gods  who  can 
only  be  worshipped  with  their  aid. 

Such  is  Hinduism  in  its  crudest  forms.  The 
higher  placed  the  Hindu  is  and  the  more 
honourable  his  caste,  the  more  closely  will  he 
follow  the  rites  prescribed  by  Brahman  priests 


120    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

and  place  himself  under  the  rule  of  life  which 
they  approve.  He  will  hear  the  shastras  or 
sacred  texts  read  though  he  may  not  under- 
stand them,  he  will  give  gifts  to  Brahmans, 
he  will  visit  holy  places  which  Siva  or  Vishnu 
or  some  incarnation  of  the  latter  honours  with 
his  presence,  he  will  bathe  in  the  sacred 
Ganges  on  appointed  days,  and  he  will  be 
scrupulously  exact  hi  what  he  eats  or  drinks 
or  touches,  lest  he  be  defiled.  There  is  no 
congregational  worship  or  "  going  to  church," 
and  set  religious  exercises  are  few.  But 
ritual  enters  into  his  daily  life  to  an  extent 
inconceivable  to  us.  Among  the  elect  of 
the  population  who  are  versed  in  the  Vedic 
tradition,  and  in  the  religious  philosophy 
of  the  Vedanta  or  other  orthodox  schools, 
purer  forms  of  belief  and  worship  are  found. 
Such  men  condemn  the  practices  around 
them  as  debased  and  superstitious ;  they 
regard  Brahma  the  creator,  Vishnu  the 
preserver,  and  Siva  the  destroyer  as  but 
three  aspects  of  the  supreme  spirit,  to 
be  worshipped  by  meditation,  holy  hymns 
and  extreme  sanctity  of  life.  In  many 
Brahman  households  of  southern  India  this 
austere  and  learned  orthodoxy  may  be  found. 
Scattered  through  the  country  there  are 
sects,  often  large  and  influential,  which 
neglect  or  deny  the  regular  gods  of  Hinduism, 
or  refuse  to  acknowledge  the  supremacy  and 


RELIGIONS  121 

accept  the  ministrations  of  Brahmans.  These 
are  unorthodox  sects.  Whether  they  are 
outside  Hinduism  or  not  depends  on  circum- 
stances. In  the  south  of  India  the  sect  of 
the  Lingayats,  now  numbering  several  millions 
of  persons,  rejected  Brahmans  and  caste 
restrictions  some  centuries  ago.  They  wor- 
ship Siva  but  they  have  their  own  ritual  and 
their  own  priesthood.  They  are  unorthodox, 
but  they  are  reckoned  as  Hindus.  They 
represent  dissenters  who  broke  away  from 
orthodox  Hinduism  on  the  point  of  Brahmanic 
supremacy.  Many  other  sects  have  a  similar 
origin.  The  inferior  classes,  for  instance, 
cannot  but  feel  that  they  have  a  very  small 
place  hi  Brahmanic  Hinduism.  The  lowest 
castes  may  not  enter  the  temples  of  Siva  or 
Vishnu.  They  are  not  recognised  as  Hindus. 
Consequently,  if  a  religious  reformer  arises, 
preaching  that  all  men  are  equal  and  offering 
a  religion  hi  which  the  Brahman  has  no  pride 
of  place,  the  common  people  hear  him  gladly. 
At  no  tune  has  India  been  without  such 
teachers. 

British  rule,  bringing  with  it  western 
knowledge  new  standards  of  morality  and 
new  social  ideas,  has  had  its  effect  on  the 
old  established  religions  of  India.  Among 
the  educated  classes  some  have  cut  themselves 
completely  adrift  from  Hindu  philosophy  and 
theology.  Others  have  striven  to  reform 


122    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

Hinduism  from  within.  Thus  originated  the 
movements  known  as  the  Brahmo  Samaj  and 
the  Arya  Somaj.  The  Brahmo  Samaj  is  now 
an  old  society.  It  has  been  described  as  an 
*'  anaemic  religion,"  a  weak  blend  of  Christian 
and  Vedic  ideas.  It  rejects  caste,  the  purdah 
system  and  other  trammels  inconvenient  to 
modern  life,  and  it  provides  a  morality  and 
a  reformed  worship  acceptable  to  educated 
and  travelled  Bengali  families.  But  it  has  not 
appealed  to  the  masses,  and  the  professing 
community  is  very  small. 

The  Arya  Somaj  is  a  younger  and  much 
more  robust  movement.  It  has  its  roots  in 
Hindu  philosophy  and  Hindu  religious  ideas. 
It  is  actively  opposed  to  Christianity.  It 
preaches  social  and  religious  reform,  but  it 
takes  its  stand  on  the  Vedas  and  professes 
to  be  merely  a  return  to  the  primitive  religion 
of  the  Aryans.  Its  missionaries  appeal  to 
Indian  national  sentiment.  Though  it  teaches 
belief  in  one  supreme  being,  and  condemns 
pilgrimages,  idol  worship,  bathing  in  sacred 
streams  and  other  ceremonial  observances, 
it  deals  gently  with  the  institution  of  caste 
and  accepts  the  doctrine  of  successive  re-births 
or  transmigration.  In  these  and  other  ways 
it  avoids  too  sharp  a  breach  with  popular 
Hinduism.  It  is  an  endeavour  to  promote 
reform  on  Indian  lines,  and  its  activities  have 
on  occasions  extended  into  politics.  Its 


RELIGIONS  128 

members  belong  mostly  to  the  educated 
middle  classes  in  the  towns  of  northern 
India,  and  their  numbers  have  increased 
rapidly  in  recent  years.  It  is  a  genuine 
movement  of  a  very  interesting  kind,  though 
in  the  judgment  of  some  observers  it  is  re- 
actionary and  mischievous. 

We  may  now  turn  to  three  religions  which 
are  not  included  in  Hinduism,  but  which 
drew  their  inspiration  from  it.  These  are 
Sikhism,  Buddhism,  and  Jainism. 

Sikhism  as  a  distinct  creed  is  comparatively 
modern.  Its  leading  doctrines — the  divine 
unity,  the  brotherhood  of  man,  the  rejection 
of  caste  and  the  uselessness  of  idol  worship — 
have  been  preached  in  India  for  many  centuries 
by  a  long  and  distinguished  line  of  Hindu 
religious  reformers.  They  were  not  novel  when 
they  took  root  among  the  sturdy  peasan- 
try of  the  eastern  Punjab  in  the  fifteenth 
century.  "  Sikh "  means  a  disciple,  and 
"  guru,"  the  name  given  by  the  Sikhs  to  their 
spiritual  leaders,  means  "  teacher."  Then- 
first  gurus  kept  strictly  within  the  pale  of 
Hinduism.  But  the  savage  persecution  which 
the  later  gurus  and  their  disciples  underwent 
from  the  Muhammadans  drew  the  Sikhs  to- 
gether as  a  separate  community  with  a  written 
body  of  doctrine  and  distinctive  observances. 
They  became  a  military  sect  and  a  political 
power.  Since  the  Sikh  empire  vanished,  the 


124    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

tendency  among  them  has  been  towards 
Brahmanic  Hinduism.  They  are  Hindus,  yet 
Hindus  with  a  difference. 

Buddhism  and  Jainism  are  not  among  the 
religions  that  influence  the  Indian  peoples. 
Buddhism  prevails  in  Burma  ;  but  in  India 
proper  it  is  found  only  among  Mongolian 
races  in  parts  of  the  Himalayan  region 
bordering  on  Tibet,  and  among  them  in  a  most 
debased  and  superstitious  form.  Jainism  is 
professed  by  a  comparatively  small  sect,  and 
it  tends  to  shade  off  into  ordinary  Hinduism. 
Many  Jains  employ  Brahmans  in  their 
domestic  worship,  venerate  the  cow,  and  often 
worship  in  Hindu  temples.  Jainism  and 
Buddhism  have  much  in  common,  and  up  to 
recent  years  Jainism  was  believed  to  be  an 
offshoot  of  Buddhism.  It  is  now  known  that 
it  originated  independently  of  though  at  the 
same  time  as  Buddhism ;  that  is,  in  the 
sixth  century  before  Christ.  Buddhism,  as  it 
was  taught  by  its  great  founder,  Gautama 
Buddha,  was  an  austere,  resigned  philosophy. 
He  taught  that  existence  was  an  evil,  and  that 
the  way  to  break  the  chain  of  successive 
existences  lay  in  stifling  personal  desire. 
Thus  arose  the  famous  doctrine  of  nirvana,  or 
extinction  as  the  flame  of  a  lamp.  Nirvana 
was  to  be  reached,  not  by  rites  or  ceremonies, 
priestly  powers  or  gods,  but  by  self-control 
and  compassion  for  others.  The  marvel  is 


RELIGIONS  125 

that  out  of  this  austere  philosophy  should 
have  came  a  world-religion,  a  religion  that  is 
professed  by  one-third  of  the  human  race. 
How  this  came  about  lies  outside  the  scope 
of  this  book,  though  it  forms  one  of  the  most 
interesting  chapters  in  the  history  of  religions. 
But  two  remarks  of  a  general  kind  may  be 
made.  Buddhism,  as  a  religion,  is  not  the 
same  thing  as  Gautama's  philosophy.  Every- 
where it  permits  and  encourages  the  venera- 
tion, if  not  worship,  of  Gautama  and  other 
holy  personages  ;  and  in  most  countries  it  is 
as  corrupt  and  mechanical  as  the  Brahmanism 
against  which  its  founder  revolted.  Secondly, 
its  professed  adherents  with  hardly  an  excep- 
tion hold  it  in  conjunction  with  other  and 
more  intimate  beliefs.  Burmese  Buddhism 
is  said  to  be  a  thin  veneer  of  philosophy  laid 
over  a  main  structure  of  demon  worship. 
"  Buddhism  supplies  the  superficial  polish. 
In  the  hour  of  great  heart  searchings  the 
Burman  falls  back  on  his  primaeval  beliefs." 
Buddhism  in  short  is  a  formal  system  of  duty, 
morality  and  benevolence.  In  practice  it  is 
supplemented  from  other  sources.  But  not- 
withstanding its  lack  of  emotion  and  warmth 
it  has  unmistakably  marked,  and  in  the  main 
for  good,  the  character  of  the  peoples  that 
have  come  under  its  influence.  The  Indian 
caste  system  and  the  degraded  position  as- 
signed in  Hinduism  to  women,  to  mention  two 


126    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

matters  only,  are  impossible  in  a  Buddhist 
country. 

If  the  people  of  Burma  were  not  Buddhists, 
their  spirit  and  demon  beliefs  would  cause 
them  to  be  classed  as  "  animists."  The 
term  "  animism  "  has  been  invented  to  cover 
the  medley  of  superstitions  which  are  found 
among  rude  and  primitive  races.  It  includes 
the  worship  of  inanimate  objects,  such  as 
rocks  and  stones,  believed  to  possess  in 
themselves  some  kind  of  mysterious  power. 
It  includes  the  belief  in  the  existence  of  souls 
or  spirits  moving  about  the  world,  which  can 
take  up  their  abode  in  some  object  and  make 
that  object  something  to  be  worshipped  or 
used  to  protect  individuals.  One  spirit  pre- 
sides over  cholera,  another  over  smallpox, 
another  over  cattle  disease.  "  Some  haunt 
rocks,  others  haunt  trees,  others  are  associated 
with  rivers,  whirlpools,  waterfalls,  or  strange 
pools  hidden  in  the  depths  of  the  hills." 
There  are  many  hill  and  forest  tribes  in  India 
whose  beliefs  are  of  this  kind,  and  who  are 
entirely  outside  the  pale  of  Hinduism.  They 
are  accordingly  classed  as  Animists.  Other 
tribes  there  are  a  little  more  advanced,  who 
are  learning  the  rudiments  of  Hinduism  under 
the  guidance  of  some  stray  Brahman  priest, 
and  are  growing  ashamed  of  their  old  obser- 
vances. When  the  census  enumerator  comes 
round  they  may  possibly  class  themselves  as 


RELIGIONS  127 

Hindus.  The  census  return  of  ten  million 
Animists  very  inadequately  represents  the 
number  of  persons  in  India  whose  real  beliefs 
are  of  this  character.  In  fact,  between 
Animism  and  Hinduism  there  is  no  hard  and 
fast  line.  The  one  melts  imperceptibly  into 
the  other.  We  have  seen  that  the  ordinary 
Hindu  peasant,  while  worshipping  the  regular 
deities  of  Brahmanism,  performs  rites  to  the 
rustic  "  godlings "  of  his  village.  These 
"  godlings "  represent  the  primitive  super- 
stitions of  India.  Popular  Hinduism,  in  short, 
is  saturated  with  animistic  beliefs. 

Animism  of  late  years  has  received  great 
attention,  as  the  superstitions  and  customs 
which  it  covers  take  us  back  to  an  early  stage 
in  the  history  of  man,  and  throw  light  on  the 
still  more  primitive  state  of  which  there  is 
no  record,  and  on  his  subsequent  advance. 
In  themselves  they  are  neither  interesting  nor 
instructive.  Save  to  the  professed  student 
the  savage  or  semi-savage  is  apt  to  be  weari- 
some. 

Turning  now  to  Muhammadanism,  we 
may  note  that  it  does  not  present  the  specu- 
lative problems  of  purely  Indian  religions. 
It  has  had  a  great  influence  on  India,  but  for 
India  of  to-day  its  interest  is  political  rather 
than  religious.  Religions  in  the  East  take 
the  place  of  nationalities.  The  seventy 
millions  of  professing  Muhamruadans  in  India 


128  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

are  for  many  purposes  a  nation.  In  adminis- 
trative matters  the  British  Government  has 
constantly  to  consider  Indian  Moslems  as  a 
separate  community,  with  interests  distinct 
from  and  often  conflicting  with  those  of  the 
rest  of  the  population. 

Of  the  doctrines  of  Muhammadanism  little 
need  be  here  said.  Its  history  as  a  world 
religion  and  its  theological  tenets  have  been 
dealt  with  in  another  volume  of  this  series. 
In  India  it  presents  some  peculiarities,  owing 
to  the  extreme  ignorance  which  prevails 
among  the  Moslem  population  in  some  parts 
of  India,  and  to  the  reaction  upon  Indian 
Musulmansof  Hindu  religions  and  observances. 
In  the  country  to  the  north-east  of  Calcutta 
over  twenty  million  persons,  representing  a 
vast  majority  of  the  agricultural  population, 
are  nominally  Muhammadans.  They  are  as 
fanatical  as  they  are  ignorant.  They  are 
easily  stirred  up  to  do  battle  with  Hindus 
in  the  name  of  Allah,  but  of  the  Koran  or  even 
the  leading  principles  of  Islam  they  know 
little  or  nothing.  Their  practical  religion  is 
a  compound  of  animistic  superstitions  and 
Brahmanical  customs.  They  are  almost  as 
much  infected  with  caste  prejudices  as  their 
Hindu  neighbours.  In  the  Punjab,  where 
rural  society  is  organised  on  the  tribal  system, 
it  is  a  common  thing  to  find  one  section  of  the 
tribe  Hindu  and  the  other  section  Musulman. 


RELIGIONS  129 

Thus  there  are  Hindu  Rajputs  and  Jats  and 
Muhammadan  Rajputs  and  Jats.  The 
Muhammadan  sections,  for  all  social,  tribal 
and  other  purposes,  were  till  recently  exactly 
as  much  Rajputs  or  Jats  as  their  Hindu 
brethren.  Nowadays  the  tendency  every- 
where in  India  is  towards  stricter  observance 
of  religious  distinctions.  Of  the  Musulman 
Rajput  the  following  graphic  picture  has  been 
drawn  :  "  His  social  customs  are  unaltered, 
his  tribal  restrictions  are  unrelaxed,  his  rules 
of  marriage  and  inheritance  unchanged  ;  and 
almost  the  only  difference  is  that  he  shaves 
his  scalp  lock  and  the  upper  edge  of  his 
moustache,  repeats  the  Muhammadan  creed 
in  a  mosque,  and  adds  the  Musulman  to  the 
Hindu  wedding  ceremony.  The  local  saints 
and  deities  still  have  their  shrines  even  in 
villages  held  wholly  by  Musulmans  and  are 
still  regularly  worshipped  by  the  majority, 
though  the  practice  is  gradually  declining. 
The  Hindu  family  priests  are  still  kept  up  and 
consulted  as  of  old,  and  the  Brahmans  are 
still  fed  on  the  usual  occasions,  and  in  many 
cases  still  officiate  at  weddings  side  by  side 
with  the  Muhammadan  priest."  It  does  not 
follow  that  the  conversion  of  these  Punjab 
tribesmen  some  centuries  ago  was  skin-deep, 
or  that  it  would  not  be  difficult  to  recall  them 
to  Hinduism.  Such  an  idea  would  not  occur 
to  either  the  Muhammadan  or  to  the  Hindu. 


130    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

The  Muhammadan,  though  his  knowledge 
of  doctrine  may  be  of  the  scantiest  kind,  is 
intensely  proud  of  his  creed.  To  the  Hindu 
a  Muhammadan  as  such  is  casteless,  or  is 
treated  as  belonging  to  a  separate  caste,  and 
the  gulf  is  unbridgeable  by  conversion.  The 
usages  that  are  found  among  Muhammadan 
tribesmen  in  the  Punjab  really  illustrate 
the  fact  that  Hinduism  is  more  a  social  than 
a  religious  system.  In  the  easy-going  camara- 
derie of  the  countryside  it  does  not  strike 
the  Musulman  Rajput  or  Jat  that  the  Hindu 
usages  he  has  adopted  are  inconsistent  with 
his  belief  in  "  Allah  and  Muhammad  His 
Prophet." 

Muhammadanism  in  the  towns  and  among 
the  educated  classes  is  less  affected  by  Hindu 
practices  and  superstitions.  Its  attitude  to 
Hinduism  is  also  less  friendly.  In  the  towns 
the  two  religions  tend  to  draw  off  into  separate 
camps.  In  most  towns  the  Muhammadan 
quarter  is  separate  from  that  of  the  Hindus. 
The  Brahman  priests  and  the  Muhammadan 
mullahs  or  preachers  are  ready  to  improve 
any  occasion  for  a  quarrel,  and  strife  once 
aroused  is  not  easily  allayed.  Among  town- 
dwelling  Muhammadans  there  is  not  that 
dense  ignorance  of  Islamic  history  and 
doctrine  that  prevails  in  the  villages.  But  an 
intelligent  and  in  any  way  adequate  knowledge 
of  these  subjects  is  possessed  by  very  few 


RELIGIONS  131 

Indian  Musulmans.  Matters  in  this  respect 
are  improving,  as  education  is  becoming 
more  general  among  the  Muhammadan  popu- 
lation of  India.  Until  recently  the  backward- 
ness in  this  respect  of  Indian  Musulmans  has 
made  them  to  be  lightly  esteemed  in  the 
Moslem  world. 

It  is  a  singular  fact  that  though  there  are 
more  Muhammadans  in  India  than  in  any 
other  country  or  empire,  Indian  Musulmans 
have  at  no  time  exerted  an  influence  corre- 
sponding to  their  numbers  either  in  India  or 
upon  the  Islamic  world  at  large.  No  great 
Islamic  movement  has  originated  in  India. 
Indian  Moslems  are  content,  if  of  the  Sunni 
sect,  as  the  majority  are,  to  look  up  to  the 
Sultan  of  Turkey  as  their  spiritual  head ; 
and,  if  Shias,  to  turn  for  guidance  to  Persian 
theologians  and  mystics.  The  reasons  of 
this  must  be  sought  in  history.  India  has 
never  been  a  part  of  Islam.  There  were 
Muhammadan  dynasties  for  centuries  in 
southern  India  and  for  nearly  two  hundred 
years  the  Mughal  empire  was  seated  at 
Delhi ;  but  the  Muhammadan  domination 
was  superficial.  The  population  remained 
Hindu,  and  the  administration  was  to  a  great 
extent  conducted  by  Hindu  officials.  The 
typical  Islamic  State  should  be  religious 
throughout ;  a  theocracy  satisfied  with 
nothing  less  than  the  dominance  of  Islamic 


132    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

belief  and  practice.     But  the  Mughal  empire 
was  a   very   secular  affair.     Babar   and   his 
Turkish  amirs  were  men  of  the  sword  and  the 
wine-cup.     His   successors   were   lax   Musul- 
mans  in  doctrine  and  practice.     The  greatest 
of  them,  Akbar,  tried  to  substitute  for  the 
religion  of  Muhammad  a  pantheistic  worship 
with  himself  as  high-priest,  in  which  Hindus 
and   Moslems   could  join.     The  empire   was 
wrecked  by  the  futile  attempt  of  Aurangzeb, 
the  "  great  Muhammadan  puritan,"  as  he  has 
been  called,  to  establish  a  true  Islamic  state. 
In  his  failure  the  weakness  of  the  nominal 
Muhammadan  supremacy  was  revealed.     In 
learning  and  peaceful  pursuits  the  Muhamma- 
dan invaders  and  their  converts  were  inferior 
to  the  Hindus.     They  remained  as  they  began, 
men  of  war  and  action,  with  little  aptitude 
for  letters.     In  the  prolonged  anarchy  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  when  the  Mughal  empire 
fell,  there  was  still  work   and   a   living  for 
them.    But  the  fighting,  though  abundant, 
was  of  an  ignoble  order,  in  the  service  of 
half-Hinduised    chiefs    or    of   rough   adven- 
turers   whose    ambitions    were    limited    to 
plunder.     The  British  came  and  established 
peace,    and    thereby   took    away    from    the 
Muhammadans    their    best    occupation.     As 
British  rule  became  more  complex  and  more 
refined,  the  Muhammadan  civil  official  had 
to  give  way  to  the  better   educated,  more 


RELIGIONS  138 

industrious,  and  more  pliant  Hindu.  When 
schools  and  colleges  were  established  on  a 
secular  basis  for  the  teaching  of  English 
and  western  sciences,  the  Muhammadans 
hung  back  while  the  Brahmans  and  the  Hindu 
writer  castes  rushed  in.  Small  wonder  is  it 
that  among  other  secrets  which  the  earthquake 
of  the  sepoy  mutiny  of  1857  revealed,  the 
Muhammadan  community  was  found  to  be 
depressed,  discontented,  and  to  a  large  extent 
actively  or  passively  disloyal. 

To  readjust  the  balance  between  the  two 
communities,  to  allay  the  apprehensions  of 
the  Muhammadans  and  to  reconcile  them 
to  British  rule,  thus  became  a  problem  of 
the  highest  interest  and  importance.  How 
pressing  it  was  thought  to  be  may  be  gathered 
from  the  title  of  a  book  published  in  1871  by 
SIR  WILLIAM  HUNTER,  which  excited  great 
attention  at  the  time :  Our  Indian  Musul- 
mans :  Are  they  bound  in  conscience  to  rebel 
against  the  Queen?  He  described  them  as 
a  source  of  chronic  danger  to  the  British 
power  in  India ;  and  he  examined  at  length 
the  causes  of  the  "  spirit  of  unrest  "  which 
possessed  them.  No  writer  of  Sir  William 
Hunter's  calibre  would  now  dream  of  asking 
and  discussing  such  a  question.  The  problem 
may,  therefore,  be  regarded  as  no  longer 
pressing.  Why  this  should  be  so  is  due  to 
three  causes.  First,  to  the  happy  effect  of 


184  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

the  measures  taken  by  the  British  Government 
for  the  improvement  of  Muhammadan  educa- 
tion and  for  securing  to  Musulmans  a  fair 
share  in  the  public  service.  Secondly,  to  the 
rise  of  a  school  of  liberal-minded  reformers 
in  the  Muhammadan  community  itself,  frankly 
accepting  British  dominion  in  India  as  a  lawful 
government  on  account  of  its  just  and  tolerant 
principles,  and  welcoming  western  education. 
Thirdly,  to  the  apprehensions  of  the  Muham- 
madan community  that  Hindu  ambitions 
and  the  programme  of  Hindu  politicians 
implied  Hindu  supremacy.  These  apprehen- 
sions were  quickened  by  the  measures 
taken  in  1909  by  Lord  Minto  and  Lord 
Morley  to  liberalise  the  Indian  administrative 
system  by  associating  the  people  more  closely 
with  the  government.  No  question  in  connec- 
tion with  this  scheme  of  constitutional  reform 
caused  greater  difficulty  or  led  to  sharper 
controversy  than  the  claims  preferred  by  the 
Muhammadan  community  for  separate  and 
adequate  representation  in  the  new  councils. 
In  the  end,  as  the  Muhammadans  themselves 
admit,  their  claims  were  very  liberally  dealt 
with.  The  apprehensions  behind  these  claims 
still  exist  and  will  affect  Indian  politics  for 
some  time  to  come.  It  is  not  surprising, 
though  it  may  be  regretted,  that  Muhamma- 
dans regard  themselves  as  a  separate  com- 
munity with  separate  interests.  In  Europe 


RELIGIONS  185 

we  expect  that  sectarian  differences,  however 
acute,  will  be  subordinated  to  nationality. 
In  India  religion  takes  the  place  of  nationality. 
As  Lord  Morley  said  in  the  House  of  Lords 
on  the  second  reading  of  the  Indian  Councils 
Bill,  "  the  difference  between  Muhammadan- 
ism  and  Hinduism  is  not  a  mere  difference  of 
articles  of  religious  faith  or  dogma.  It  is  a 
difference  in  life,  in  tradition,  in  history,  in 
all  the  social  things  as  well  as  articles  of 
belief  that  constitute  a  community." 


CHAPTER  VI 

ECONOMIC     LIFE 

FEW  subjects  have  been  more  often  discussed 
or  have  led  to  sharper  controversies  than 
the  economic  condition  of  the  people  of  India. 
Are  they  much  worse  off  than  the  population 
of  the  British  Isles  ?  Are  they  becoming 
poorer  or  richer  ?  How  far  is  their  in- 
creasing poverty  or  increasing  prosperity 
due  to  the  government  under  which  they 
live? 

Nothing  is  more  difficult  than  to  gauge  the 
economic  condition  of  the  inhabitants  of  a 
foreign  country  by  external  circumstances. 
SIR  FREDERICK  TREVES,  in  his  account 
of  a  tour  in  the  East,  has  recorded  the  first  im- 
pressions made  on  him  by  India  and  its  people. 
He  speaks  of  the  multitude  of  men,  women  and 
children  "  a  little  below  the  most  meagre 
comfort  and  a  little  above  the  nearest  reach 
of  starvation."  The  country,  he  says,  "  looks 
homeless."  It  leaves  "  an  impression  of 
poorness  and  melancholy."  "  The  villages 
136 


ECONOMIC  LIFE  137 

are  piteous  clusters  of  mud  walls,  daubed 
round  the  sides  of  a  thick  pond  in  the  bare 
earth."     On    the    other    hand,     SIR    JOHN 
STBACHEY,  recording  the  results  of  a  long 
acquaintance  with  the  country  in  his  India, 
Its    Administration    and    Progress,     wrote : 
'  There  can  be  no  question  that  in  times  of 
ordinary  prosperity  there  is,  in  proportion  to 
the  population,  more  want  and  extreme  misery 
in  our  own  country  than   in   India."     The 
Indian  peasant's  cottage,  he  said,   "affords 
clean  and,  according  to  his  ideas,  comfortable 
shelter.     He  has  not  much  clothing,  but  much 
is  not  wanted ;    in  the  winter  he  suffers  little 
from   the   cold.     In   ordinary   circumstances 
he  has  sufficient  food  of  the  only  kind  he 
desires,    the   produce   of   his   own   fields   or 
garden,  his  millets  and  lentils,  his  barley  or 
his   rice,    his    much-appreciated    ghee   made 
from    the    milk    of    cows    or    buffaloes,    the 
vegetables,  spices  and  condiments  of  which 
in  a  hot  climate  there  is  no  lack,  and  as  much 
tobacco,    sugar   and   sweetmeats   as   he   can 
afford  to  buy.     ...     His  wife  has  often 
her  holiday  attire  and  her  silver  ornaments, 
for  after  providing  the  necessities  of  life  there 
is  frequently  something  left  for  simple  luxuries 
and  for  buying  jewellery,  the  latter  a  common 
form  of  hoarding.'* 

Assuming  that  there  is  an  element  of  truth 
in  both  these  accounts,   we  see  that  they 


138    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

describe  a  state  of  society  which  to  English 
eyes  is  almost  inconceivably  simple  and 
elementary,  destitute  of  comforts  and  con- 
veniences that  we  are  accustomed  to  regard 
as  essential  to  civilised  life.  And  yet  this 
society  is  not  uncivilised,  is  not  incom- 
patible with  home  affections  and  interests, 
and  is  not  devoid  of  simple  pleasures  and 
enjoyments. 

If  we  turn  from  personal  observations  to 
records  of  a  more  general  kind,  we  observe 
some  broad  economic  facts  which  require 
to  be  taken  note  of  and  accounted  for ;  ^the 
more  so  as  they  seem  at  first  sight  to  be 
inconsistent  with  each  other.  On  the  one 
hand  we  see  a  standard  of  living  and  a  rate  of 
wages  which  to  Europeans  seem  incredibly 
low,  and  we  frequently  hear  of  disastrous 
droughts  and  famines  and  of  measures  of 
relief  on  an  enormous  scale.  On  the  other 
hand,  we  are  told  on  good  authority  that  the 
foreign  trade  of  India  is  rapidly  growing ; 
that  year  by  year  there  is  a  larger  import  of 
commodities ;  that  the  goods  and  passenger 
traffic  of  the  railways  steadily  increases ; 
that  irrigation  is  extending ;  that  large 
industries  are  springing  up  and  crying  for 
labour ;  that  the  population  absorbs  large 
quantities  of  gold  and  silver  ;  that  it  is  better 
dressed  and  better  housed  than  in  former 
days,  and  that  in  years  when  the  crops  are 


ECONOMIC  LIFE  139 

poor  and  trade  is  bad,  it  shows  unexpected 
ability  to  support  itself.  How  are  these 
anomalies  to  be  explained  ? 

Let  us  look  somewhat  more  closely  into  the 
facts.  The  total  population  of  India,  includ- 
ing that  of  the  protected  native  states,  is 
three  hundred  and  fifteen  millions.  Three- 
fourths  of  this  vast  population  is  supported 
by  agriculture.  The  area  under  cultivation 
is  not  accurately  known,  as  the  returns  from 
the  native  States  are  incomplete.  But  we 
shall  not  be  far  wrong  if  we  assume  that  there 
is  less  than  one  acre  of  cultivated  land  per 
head  of  total  population,  and  not  more  than 
one  acre  and  a  quarter  per  head  for  that 
portion  of  the  population  which  is  directly 
supported  by  agriculture.  One  more  fact 
must  be  mentioned  to  bring  out  the  full 
significance  of  these  figures.  Not  only  does 
the  land  of  India  provide  food  for  this  great 
population,  for  with  the  exception  of  some 
sugar  no  food  is  imported  from  other  countries, 
but  a  very  considerable  portion  of  it  is  set 
apart  for  growing  produce  which  is  exported. 
India  supplies  the  whole  world  with  jute. 
Its  cotton  crop  is  the  second  largest  in  the 
world.  It  sends  abroad  very  large  quantities 
of  rice,  wheat  and  oil -seeds.  In  fact,  it  pays 
its  bill  for  imports  of  merchandise  and  treasure, 
and  discharges  its  other  international  debts, 
mainly  by  the  sale  of  agricultural  produce. 


140  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

Subtracting  the  land  thus  utilised  for  supply- 
ing foreign  markets  from  the  total  area 
under  cultivation,  we  shall  find  that  what  is 
left  over  does  not  represent  more  than  two- 
thirds  of  an  acre  per  head  of  the  total  Indian 
population.  India,  therefore,  feeds  and  to 
some  extent  clothes  its  population  from  what 
two-thirds  of  an  acre  per  head  can  produce. 
There  is  probably  no  country  in  the  world 
where  the  land  is  required  to  do  so  much. 
That  it  manages  to  discharge  the  heavy  task 
put  upon  it  is  due  to  three  things.  First, 
the  great  fertility  of  large  tracts  where  either 
the  rainfall  is  abundant  or  irrigation  is 
provided  ;  secondly,  the  unremitting  labour 
and  skill  of  the  Indian  cultivator ;  and 
thirdly,  great  economy  in  the  consumption  of 
food. 

It  may  also  be  inferred  that  the  average 
income  of  the  peasant  cultivators  is  very 
small.  The  net  profit  obtainable  from  an 
acre  of  land  seems  to  us  altogether  inadequate 
for  one  person's  support ;  and  our  conclusion 
would  be  the  same  if  we  take  a  family  of  five, 
namely,  two  adults  and  three  children,  and  a 
holding  of  five  acres,  as  the  unit.  But  accord- 
ing to  Indian  ideas  and  a  traditional  standard 
of  very  thrifty  and  frugal  living,  five  acres 
of  good  irrigated  land  will  support  such  a 
family  comfortably.  The  peasant  has  no 
labour  bill,  as  he  and  his  family  work  the 


ECONOMIC  LIFE  141 

holding.  He  pays  no  rent  for  his  cottage  of 
sun-dried  bricks  and  thatch,  which  he  himself 
builds,  and  which  he  from  time  to  time 
rebuilds  or  repairs.  He  pays  no  rates  or 
taxes.  If  he  owns  his  land  he  will  have  to  pay 
land  revenue  to  the  State ;  and  this  represents 
a  moderate  tithe  of  about  a  twelfth  or  less 
of  the  produce.  If  he  is  a  tenant-farmer,  the 
rent  will  be  at  least  double  the  amount  of  the 
land-tax.  Of  his  other  cash  outgoings  the 
cost  and  feed  of  a  yoke  of  oxen  will  probably 
be  the  largest  item.  The  death  of  a  bullock, 
as  may  be  imagined,  is  a  great  calamity, 
trying  severely  his  resources  or  even  necessi- 
tating resort  to  the  money-lender.  But  a 
five-acre  holding  of  good  land,  well  worked, 
will  yield  enough  to  satisfy  all  these  demands, 
provide  simple  food  for  the  family,  and  a 
modicum  of  spare  cash  for  clothes  and  other 
household  expenses.  If  he  is  in  debt  to  the 
grain-dealer  or  bania,  he  may  be  hard  put 
to  it  to  make  both  ends  meet.  But  if  he  is 
clear  of  debt,  as  not  infrequently  happens, 
he  will  probably  accumulate  rupees,  which 
he  will  either  bury  as  a  hoard  or  convert 
into  jewellery. 

But  all  the  land  in  India  is  not  good  and 
irrigated,  and  every  peasant's  holding  is  not 
a  five-acre  plot.  Some  peasants  hold  con- 
siderably more  than  five  acres  ;  consequently 
others  hold  less.  And  when  we  get  down  to 


142  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

the  man  who  holds  less  than  five  acres  of  land 
and  that  of  poor  quality,  then  there  is  want 
and  a  hard  struggle  for  existence.  That 
man  and  his  household  are  poor  even  in  the 
Indian  sense  of  the  term. 

Below  the  peasant  class  there  is  a  large 
class  of  landless  folk,  who  also  find  support 
from  the  land  by  working  for  the  well-to-do 
cultivators  in  return  for  a  daily  or  monthly 
wage.  They  form  a  well-recognised  part 
of  the  village  community,  and  poor  and 
poorly  remunerated  as  they  no  doubt  are,  it 
is  the  traditional  duty  as  well  as  the  interest 
of  the  landholding  class  to  see  them  through 
bad  times.  There  are  also  other  residents 
of  the  village  who  do  not  actually  cultivate 
land,  but  yet  are  indirectly  supported  from 
it.  Such  are  the  village  potter,  the  village 
blacksmith  and  carpenter  who  make  ploughs 
and  other  agricultural  implements,  the  barber, 
the  cobbler  or  leather-worker,  the  washerman, 
the  watchman.  All  these  receive  doles  of 
fixed  amounts  from  the  grain  heap  at  harvest 
time,  and  other  dues  and  perquisites. 
Throughout  the  year  a  stream  of  charity 
flows  unceasingly  from  all  the  households 
in  proportion  to  their  several  means.  The 
unostentatious  benevolence  of  all  grades 
of  society  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  traits 
of  Indian  life.  It  is  not  confined  to  the 
countryside,  though  it  finds  its  best  expression 


ECONOMIC  LIFE  143 

there  where  each  village  has  its  own  infirm 
and  aged  poor,  its  own  destitute  orphans, 
its  own  beggars  and  even  its  own  "  work-shy  " 
impostors.  In  the  West  the  poor-law  and  the 
state  have  largely  taken  over  charity  of  this 
kind.  In  the  East  it  is  still  a  religious  duty, 
and  along  with  the  strength  and  sanctity  of 
the  ties  of  family  and  caste  it  makes  a  poor- 
law  unnecessary.  In  no  respect  does  India 
differ  more  profoundly  from  England  than 
in  this.  Save  in  time  of  drought  and 
scarcity  there  is  no  public  system  of  poor 
relief. 

No  one  would  pretend  that  this  Indian 
village  life  is  ideal,  or  unaccompanied  by 
much  that  is  distressing  to  the  humane  mind 
to  contemplate.  The  wastage  of  life,  especi- 
ally child  and  infant  life,  is  great.  Diseases 
which  in  England  have  given  way  before 
sanitary  and  medical  science,  improved  dwell- 
ings and  better  habits  of  life,  stalk  abroad. 
Plague,  the  mysterious  and  loathsome  disease 
which  the  English  people  knew  in  the  four- 
teenth century  as  the  Black  Death,  has  in 
India  in  fourteen  years  carried  off  seven 
million  people,  or  more  than  the  whole  popu- 
lation of  "  greater  "  London.  Cholera,  small- 
pox, malarial  fevers  are  endemic  in  the 
country,  and  collectively  destroy  lives  by  the 
million.  The  "  preventable  mortality "  is 
in  one  sense  great,  but  it  is  not "  preventable  " 


144    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

by  any  ordinary  means  within  the  power  of 
the  state.  European  principles  of  medicine 
are  represented  by  the  public  hospitals  and 
dispensaries  which  are  dotted  over  the  country 
and  which  relieve  a  vast  amount  of  sickness 
and  suffering.  But  the  great  majority  of 
Indian  people  die  without  medical  aid. 
That  the  population  continues  to  increase 
is  a  sign  that  the  forces  of  life  are  stronger 
than  those  of  destruction.  But  the  resigned 
pessimism  and  quiet  melancholy  which  char- 
acterise the  religions  and  the  mental  outlook 
of  the  people,  and  which  seem  to  brood  over 
the  landscape  and  infect  the  atmosphere, 
are  not  without  a  physical  basis. 

Such  in  broad  outline  is  the  structure  of 
rural  life  throughout  India.  It  is  the  life 
led  by  nine-tenths  of  the  population.  Only 
the  remaining  tenth  live  in  towns  with  over 
five  thousand  inhabitants.  We  hear  of  the 
great  cities  of  India  but  they  can  almost  be 
counted  on  the  fingers  of  two  hands.  There 
are  not  ten  cities  and  towns  in  India  with 
populations  exceeding  two  hundred  thousand. 
Of  these  four  are  maritime  towns  whose 
creation  is  largely  due  to  British  capital  and 
commerce,  four  (Delhi,  Lahore,  Lucknow, 
Ahmadabad)  are  the  capitals  of  former 
dynasties,  while  one  (Benares)  is  the  holy 
city  of  Hinduism.  Contrast  this  with  England, 
where  ninety  per  cent,  of  the  population  live 


ECONOMIC  LIFE  145 

in  towns  containing  ten  thousand  inhabitants 
and  upwards,  and  twenty-five  per  cent,  in 
towns  with  over  two  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  inhabitants.  In  England  agricul- 
ture is  only  one  of  six  or  seven  great  industries, 
while  the  wealth  it  yields  is  small  relatively 
to  the  aggregate  national  income.  In  India 
outside  Bombay  and  Calcutta  wealth  where  it 
exists  is  derived  from  the  rentals  of  large 
estates.  In  northern  India,  especially  in 
Bengal  and  the  United  Provinces  of  Agra  and 
Oudh,  there  are  great  landlords  whose  incomes 
are  large  even  in  the  English  sense  and  whose 
estates  extend  to  many  thousands  of  acres. 
They  are  intermediaries  between  the  state, 
the  traditional  owner  of  the  soil  in  India  as 
in  other  eastern  countries,  and  the  peasant 
or  the  village  community.  How  they  came 
into  existence  is  a  story  too  long  to  tell  here. 
Some  of  them  represent  chieftainships,  just 
as  some  Scottish  landlords  to-day  are  the 
representatives  of  former  chiefs  of  highland 
clans.  Others  are  the  descendants  of  revenue 
farmers  who  in  the  days  of  the  Mughal 
government  were  granted  tracts  of  country 
on  condition  of  collecting  the  land  assessment 
from  the  cultivators  and  accounting  for  the 
proceeds  to  the  imperial  treasury.  In  which- 
ever of  these  ways  their  present  estates 
originated,  their  position  relatively  to  the 
cultivators  has  been  enormously  strengthened 


146    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

and  their  wealth  increased  by  the  advent  of 
British  rule  and  English  legal  ideas  of  land- 
ownership.  Under  native  rule  they  were 
treated  well  if  they  were  allowed  to  keep  one- 
tenth  of  what  they  collected  from  the  culti- 
vators. Under  British  rule  they  are  allowed 
to  retain  about  one-half ;  and  where  as  in 
Bengal  their  payments  to  the  state  have 
been  permanently  fixed,  they  have  been 
greatly  enriched  by  the  rise  of  rents  and  the 
extension  of  cultivation  in  their  estates. 
Whatever  view  be  taken  of  the  general 
considerations  for  or  against  tenancy  laws 
for  the  protection  of  tenants  and  for  limiting 
the  power  of  the  landlords,  the  claim  of  the 
Indian  cultivators  to  such  protection  is 
undeniably  strong.  The  claim  has  been 
recognised  by  the  Indian  government,  which 
has  repeatedly  legislated  on  their  behalf.  In 
every  province  the  powers  of  the  landlord  to 
raise  his  tenant's  rent  or  to  evict  him  are  now 
closely  restricted  by  law. 

We  have  incidentally  mentioned  "  the 
village  community,"  and  have  described  it 
as  a  self-contained  society,  having  its  group 
of  cultivators,  its  field  labourers,  its  village 
artisans  and  officials  and  its  grain  dealer  and 
money  lender.  The  Indian  village  community, 
with  its  bond  of  joint  responsibility  and  its 
curious  customs  about  the  common  lands  and 
about  the  distribution  of  the  arable  land, 


ECONOMIC  LIFE  147 

has  been  the  subject  of  much  learned  dis- 
quisition. Its  strength  and  power  of  survival 
in  troublous  times  have  also  excited  great 
admiration.  SIR  CHARLES  METCALFE,  a  very 
distinguished  Indian  administrator,  writ- 

m^iin«i830  of  Indian   village  communities 
said,       They    seem    to   last    where    nothing 
else  lasts.     Dynasty  after  dynasty  tumbles 
down  ;  revolution  succeeds  revolution ;  Hindu 
Pathan,  Mughal,  Maratha,  Sikh,  English,  are 
all  masters  in  turn;    but  the  village  com- 
munities   remain    the    same.     In    times    of 
trouble   they   arm   and   fortify   themselves; 
a  hostile  army  passes  through  the  country; 
the  village  communities  collect  their  cattle 
within  their  walls,  and  let  the  enemy  pass 
unprovoked.     If  plunder  and  devastation  be 
directed   against   themselves   and   the   force 
employed  be  irresistible,  they  flee  to  friendly 
villages  at  a  distance ;    but  when  the  storm 
s  over  they  return  and  resume  their  occupa- 
tions.    ...     A  generation  may  pass  away 
but  the  succeeding  generation  will  return. 
This  union  of  the  village  communities,  each 
one  forming  a  separate  little  state  itself,  has 
I  conceive,  contributed  more  than  any  other- 
cause  to  the  preservation  of  the  people  of 
India  through  all  the  revolutions  and  changes 
which  they  have  suffered,  and  is  in  a  high 
degree  conducive  to  their  happiness,  and  to 
the  enjoyment  of  a  great  portion  of  freedom 


148    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

and  independence."  The  Indian  village  com- 
munity is  obviously  an  ancient  institution. 
It  takes  us  back  to  days  when  the  unit  of 
society  was  the  real  or  fictitiously  enlarged 
family  under  the  rule  of  the  nearest  direct 
descendant  in  the  male  line  of  a  reputed 
common  ancestor.  But  as  SIR  THEODORE 
MORISON  has  pointed  out  in  his  Economic 
Transition  of  India,  the  peculiar  features  of 
the  Indian  village  community  have  existed  in 
other  countries  and  can  be  assigned  to  certain 
economic  causes.  Thus  in  ancient  France 
village  communities  were  jointly  liable  for 
the  payment  of  the  King's  taxes  and  appor- 
tioned the  amount  among  the  individual 
members.  They  also  had  village  watchmen 
and  village  herdsmen  who  were  paid  by  con- 
tributions from  the  peasant  occupiers  in 
proportion  to  their  respective  incomes. 
The  economic  independence  and  self-sufficing 
organisation  of  the  Indian  village  have 
resulted  from  its  isolation  in  the  past,  and  this 
isolation  was  due  to  poor  and  unsafe  communi- 
cations. Under  the  native  governments  there 
were  no  high  roads  for  wheeled  traffic  and  no 
means  of  marketing  bulky  and  perishable 
commodities.  Travelling  was  also  unsafe, 
for  there  were  no  police,  and  war  and  brigand- 
age were  the  normal  condition  of  the  country. 
Each  village  had  to  stand  alone,  and  required 
its  own  staff  of  servants,  labourers  and 


ECONOMIC  LIFE  149 

artisans.  The  population  was  distributed 
among  isolated  villages,  and  this  prevented 
the  efficient  distribution  of  labour.  Every 
European  country  has  passed  through  the 
same  phase.  But  whereas  in  Europe  the 
transition  was  made  and  local  isolation  broken 
down  one  hundred  or  one  hundred  and  fifty 
years  ago,  in  India  the  change  did  not  com- 
mence until  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  It  is  only  within  the  last  thirty  years 
that  railways  have  become  at  all  widespread  in 
India,  and  good  roads  were  few  fifty  years 
ago.  The  isolated  and  economically  inde- 
pendent village  has  thus  survived  in  India 
long  after  its  disappearance  from  Europe. 
It  is  the  landmark  of  an  archaic  system  of 
society  which  is  only  now  beginning  to  pass 
away.  "  A  modern  town,"  SIR  THEODORE 
MORISON  writes,  "  such  as  the  bulk  of  the 
English  people  live  in,  depends  for  its  very 
existence  from  week  to  week  upon  a  compli- 
cated system  of  distant  exchanges,  and  the 
characteristic  of  the  modern  structure  of 
society  is  the  interdependence  of  the  different 
industrial  units ;  the  characteristic  of  the 
archaic  economy  is  the  isolation  and  the 
independence  of  the  village  which  is  the 
industrial  unit  of  that  type  of  society."  We 
have  had  experience  of  the  confusion  and 
industrial  paralysis  produced  in  England  by 
a  three  days'  partial  railway  strike.  In  India 


150  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

all  the  railways  might  stop  for  a  month 
without  disturbing  the  even  tenor  of  the  life 
of  many  a  village  community. 

We  are  now  in  a  position  to  appreciate  the 
significance  of  "  famine "  in  India.  A 
country  that  depends  almost  entirely  on 
agriculture  carries  its  eggs  in  one  basket. 
If  the  crops  are  bad,  its  one  industry  ceases 
to  produce  and  everybody  feels  the  effect. 
Indian  agriculture  depends,  as  has  already 
been  explained,  on  the  seasonal  or  "  monsoon  " 
rains,  and  these  rains  occasionally  are  insuffi- 
cient or  fail  entirely.  Sometimes  the  failure 
is  confined  to  a  small  tract  of  country  :  at 
other  times  a  vast  area  is  involved.  But  on 
no  one  occasion  have  the  rains  failed  over  the 
whole  continent.  This  last  fact  is  important, 
for  it  means  that  the  food  grown  even  in  the 
worst  years  together  with  the  unconsumed 
surplus  of  previous  years  is  sufficient  for  the 
needs  of  the  country  for  a  twelvemonth. 
But  this  assumes  that  it  can  be  readily 
carried  long  distances.  In  old  days  this  was 
not  the  case.  Each  village  was  isolated,  and 
each  region  was  still  more  completely  isolated. 
An  extensive  drought  in  these  circumstances 
was  an  irremediable  disaster.  There  were  no 
means  of  combating  it.  Famine  in  the 
fullest  and  most  dreadful  sense  of  the  word 
overtook  the  population.  The  more  fortunate 
individuals  or  village  communities  might  have 


ECONOMIC  LIFE  151 

reserved  stocks  of  food  sufficient  to  maintain 
themselves  but  most  of  the  inhabitants 
either  died  or  dragged  themselves  miserably 
to  places  beyond  the  famine  zone.  If  we  had 
a  complete  record  of  the  fortunes  of  an  Indian 
village  during  the  last  three  hundred  years, 
we  should  probably  find  that  its  population 
had  ever  and  anon  been  blotted  out  by  some 
terrible  drought. 

A  famine  in  this  sense  is  no  longer  possible 
in  India.  The  word  is  retained  in  official  and 
popular  language,  but  it  now  merely  means  a 
drought  and  the  absence  of  employment  and 
dearness  of  food  resulting  therefrom.  It  does 
not  mean  that  there  is  no  food  and  that 
multitudes  will  starve  to  death.  The  cause 
of  these  changed  and  improved  conditions 
must  be  sought  in  the  railway  and  canal 
construction  policy  pursued  by  the  British 
Indian  government  during  the  last  forty 
years.  There  are  now  thirty-one  thousand 
miles  of  railway  and  twenty-three  million 
acres  of  canal  irrigated  land  in  India.  These 
figures  mean  two  things.  The  canals  mean 
that  in  the  worst  year  a  vast  area  is  placed 
beyond  the  reach  of  drought  and  produces 
food.  The  railways  mean  that  the  food  pro- 
duced on  the  irrigated  lands  and  in  the  more 
distant  regions  not  affected  by  the  drought 
will  be  conveyed  with  speed  and  security  to 
the  drought  afflicted  districts.  To  use  a 


152    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

military  metaphor,  the  railways  and  canals 
now  enable  the  Indian  government  to  come 
to  the  relief  of  a  population  beleaguered  by 
drought  in  any  part  of  India.  The  key  to 
the  position  lay  in  the  food  supply.  Now 
that  this  position  has  been  carried,  the  precise 
method  of  relieving  the  distressed  population 
is  merely  a  question  of  tactics.  The  plan 
adopted  is  to  provide  employment  and  wages 
by  opening  extensive  public  works  for  the 
able-bodied  residents  of  the  villages  who  are 
temporarily  thrown  out  of  work  by  the 
stoppage  of  agriculture,  and  to  relieve  the 
young,  the  old  and  the  infirm  gratuitously. 
A  famine-relief  campaign  of  this  kind  is  a  very 
great  and  arduous  -undertaking,  and  could 
not  be  carried  through  successfully  if  the 
whole  scheme  of  operations  had  not  been 
thought  out  in  all  its  details,  and  all  arrange- 
ments made  beforehand.  This  has  been  done 
in  each  province,  and  the  results  embodied  in 
a  "  famine-code,"  an  inexact  term  which 
really  means  the  regulations  for  the  relief  of 
distress  in  seasons  of  scarcity.  A  famine 
relief  campaign  is  also  a  costly  affair,  and  may 
run  into  a  bill  of  two  or  three  millions  sterling. 
But  as  such  relief  is  now  as  much  a  part  of 
the  ordinary  business  of  the  state  as  poor-law 
relief  in  England,  a  sinking  fund  (called 
the  "  famine-insurance  grant ")  sufficient 
to  meet  the  probable  expenditure  over  a 


ECONOMIC  LIFE  153 

series  of   years  is  provided    in    the    annual 
estimates. 

Thus  the  Indian  population  is  now  protected 
against  the  extreme  severities  of  drought. 
Drought,  as  experienced  in  India,  must  still 
necessarily  cause  much  privation,  great  des- 
truction of  wealth  in  the  form  of  ungarnered 
crops,  and  some  rise,  though  no  longer  a 
marked  rise,  in  the  death  rate.  But  the 
village  communities  are  kept  together  instead 
of  being  swept  away  as  they  were  in  old  days, 
and  the  injury  done  to  the  agriculture  of  a 
province  is  repaired  on  the  advent  of  the 
next  good  monsoon.  Under  native  govern- 
ments famine  was  one  of  the  several  checks 
constantly  operating  to  keep  down  the  growth 
of  the  population.  Under  British  rule  war 
and  anarchy  have  long  ceased,  while  the 
destructive  edge  of  famine  has  been  blunted. 
Has  then  the  population  increased  greatly, 
and  is  it  tending  to  outrun  the  means  of 
subsistence  ?  In  the  last  thirty  years  the 
population  of  India  as  a  whole  has  increased 
about  twenty  per  cent,  or  by  more  than 
fifty  million.  It  is  now  three  hundred  and 
fifteen  million.  The  figures  are  portentous  in 
magnitude.  For  a  population  of  this  size 
there  is  certainly  not  a  livelihood  according 
to  the  standard  of  western  Europe  under  the 
present  industrial  conditions  of  India.  But 
it  may  safely  be  said  that  there  is  a  better 


154    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

livelihood  to-day  for  the  present  population 
than  there  was  thirty  years  ago  for  the  then 
population.  In  other  words  the  production  of 
India,  agricultural  and  industrial,  has  increased 
faster  than  the  population.  In  its  railway  and 
irrigation  policy  the  Indian  government  has 
done  more  than  merely  protect  the  country 
from  drought.  It  has  increased  its  productive 
powers.  In  the  Punjab  some  millions  of 
acres  of  highly  fertile  land,  lying  outside  the 
monsoon  zone  on  the  confines  of  the  great 
Indian  desert  and  formerly  bare  and  desolate, 
have  been  transmuted  into  rich  irrigation 
colonies.  At  the  same  time  railways  have 
opened  large  and  distant  markets  to  the 
cultivator.  In  other  provinces  a  like  impulse 
has  been  given  to  the  extension  of  the  arable 
area  and  to  the  cultivation  of  valuable  crops. 
India  thereby  has  been  able  both  to  feed  its 
increased  population  and  in  years  of  average 
prosperity  to  export  upwards  of  £100,000,000 
of  food  grains,  fibres,  oil-seeds,  or  the 
manufactured  products  thereof,  to  foreign 
countries. 

The  industrial  revolution  in  India  may  be 
said  to  be  beginning.  So  far  its  effects  have 
been  most  felt  in  the  country's  principal 
industry,  agriculture.  The  village  community 
of  the  past  is  losing  its  isolation  and  its 
economic  independence.  It  is  beginning  to 
produce  for  distant  markets  and  is  being  drawn 


ECONOMIC  LIFE  155 

into  the  ocean  of  international  commerce. 
The  change  is  not  without  its  dangers,  and 
there  are  those  who  view  it  with  regret. 
But  it  is  inevitable  and  it  is  on  the  whole 
fraught  with  good.  Labour  has  already 
become  more  mobile,  and  thereby  more 
efficient.  Mining  and  modern  manufacturing 
industries  have  taken  root  at  various  points 
on  or  near  the  seaboard  and  at  specially 
favoured  centres  in  the  interior.  Among 
these  industries  it  is  sufficient  to  mention 
gold  and  coal-mining,  cotton  and  jute  power- 
mills,  tea  and  coffee  planting.  These  and 
other  industries  are  steadily  growing.  They 
have  created  an  active  labour  market,  and 
the  competition  for  labour  has  undoubtedly 
raised  the  wages  of  unskilled  and  skilled 
labour  throughout  the  country.  Ten  years 
ago  field  labour  could  be  had  for  twopence  a 
day  in  upper  India.  The  wage  is  now 
doubled  and  in  many  places  trebled.  The 
wage  of  a  skilled  blacksmith  or  carpenter 
has  risen  in  a  still  greater  degree.  Those 
who  know  India  best  are  most  confident  about 
its  industrial  progress. 

The  answer  therefore  to  the  questions 
raised  at  the  beginning  of  this  section  is  that 
the  Indian  standard  of  living  is  not  that  of 
western  Europe.  It  is  lower;  but  poverty 
is  a  relative  term,  and  the  difference  of 
standards  in  such  a  comparison  is  not  merely 


156    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

one  of  degree  but  of  quality.  The  Indian 
standard,  such  as  it  is,  has  risen  since  the 
establishment  of  British  rule,  and  the  improve- 
ment is  due  to  that  rule.  It  is  still  rising, 
and  as  far  as  one  can  see  it  will  continue  to 
rise. 


CHAPTER   VH 

THE  GOVERNMENT   OF  BRITISH  INDIA 

THE  government  of  British  India  is  a  govern- 
ment of  a  dependency  of  the  British  Crown. 
As  such  its  powers  are  derived  from  and 
defined  by  Parliament,  and  it  may  therefore 
be  called  a  derivative  government.  A  govern- 
ment of  this  type  is  not  national  in  origin, 
nor  is  it  autonomous.  But  India  is  a  con- 
tinent without  nationalities,  and  for  seven 
hundred  years  it  has  either  been  under  foreign 
rulers  or  plunged  in  anarchy.  Its  vast 
territory  has  been  incessantly  split  up  and 
parcelled  out  among  foreign  conquerors  and 
contending  dynasties ;  its  population  is 
internally  divided  to  a  degree  unparalleled 
elsewhere  even  in  Asia.  British  rule  in  India 
can  find  a  good  title,  as  the  lawyers  say,  in 
the  conditions  preceding  it.  It  succeeded  to 
the  Mughal  empire  in  the  last  throes  of  dissolu- 
tion. It  was  welcomed  by  the  Indian  peoples, 
who  co-operated  willingly  in  promoting  its 
dominion,  and  whom  it  saved  from  the  anarchy 
157 


158    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

which  was  grievously  wasting  them.  It  is 
to  this  day  accepted  by  the  peoples  and 
princes  of  India  as  the  best  government  of 
which  they  have  knowledge,  and  as  freely 
admitting  them  to  its  councils  and  to  respons- 
ible office.  All  the  subordinate  and  much  of 
the  superior  work  of  the  administration  is 
performed  by  Indians.  In  that  sense  the 
government  of  British  India  is  a  national 
government. 

The  evolution  of  this  government  is  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  chapters  of  political 
history.  We  have  seen  that  in  1 858  an  Act  was 
passed  by  Parliament  transferring  the  govern- 
ment of  India  from  the  East  India  Company 
to  the  Crown,  and  that  Queen  Victoria's 
memorable  Proclamation  of  November  1, 
1858,  which  has  been  justly  called  the  Magna 
Carta  of  India,  announced  to  the  peoples  of 
India  the  principles  on  which  British  rule 
would  be  conducted.  And  if  we  are  content 
to  start  from  this  point,  we  can  point  to  a 
series  of  Acts  of  Parliament  building  up  the 
present  fabric  of  the  Indian  government. 
But  unless  we  go  further  back,  half  the  contri- 
vances which  this  fabric  exhibits  are  not 
intelligible  to  us.  We  should  not  know  how 
they  came  into  being  or  for  what  purpose. 
Again,  we  should  be  ignorant  of  the  process  by 
which  the  Crown  of  England  acquired  this 
great  dominion  beyond  the  seas.  What  says 


GOVERNMENT  OF  BRITISH  INDIA   159 

the  Queen's  Proclamation  on  this  point  ? 
It  says  that  the  Crown  with  the  advice 
and  consent  of  Parliament  had  resolved 
to  take  upon  itself  the  government  of  the 
territories  in  India,  "  heretofore  administered 
in  trust  for  us  by  the  Honourable  East 
India  Company."  What  does  this  mean  ? 
How  came  a  trading  company  to  be 
the  trustee  for  the  Crown  of  a  great 
dependency  ? 

A  comprehensive  legal  phrase  like  "  trust  " 
is  sometimes  used  to  cover  a  doubtful  position. 
In  the  third  quarter  of  the  eighteenth  century 
the  British  people  and  Parliament  awoke  to 
the  fact  that  the  East  India  Company  had 
become  possessed  of  an  immense  territory  in 
India,  where  it  was  exercising  sovereign 
rights,  raising  armies,  making  peace  and 
war,  and  generally  incurring  responsibilities 
too  vast  for  a  trading  association.  The 
Company  claimed  to  hold  its  territorial  acquisi- 
tions as  its  private  property,  and  at  first 
Parliament  was  not  disposed  to  challenge 
seriously  the  claim,  but  contented  itself  with 
exacting  for  the  British  treasury  an  annual 
tribute  of  £400,000.  But  the  Company's 
debts  and  the  confusion  of  its  affairs  in  India 
re-opened  the  question,  and  convinced  the 
nation  that  a  radical  reform  was  necessary. 
The  remedy  devised  by  Parliament  was  Lord 
North's  famous  Regulating  Act  of  1773,  which 


160    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

remodelled  the  governing  body  of  the 
Company,  established  a  Governor-General 
and  council  for  Bengal,  and  set  up  a  supreme 
court  of  justice  in  Calcutta.  It  was  under 
this  Act  that  Warren  Hastings  was  appointed 
Governor-General.  The  Act  was  a  sign  that 
Parliament  recognised  a  national  responsibility 
for  the  empire  created  by  the  Company,  but  it 
left  the  question  of  ownership  unsettled. 
It  left  the  Company  in  possession  of  its 
territories  and  revenues  for  the  term  of  its 
charter. 

The  Regulating  Act  proved  to  be  seriously 
defective.  Warren  Hastings  had  unexpected 
difficulties  with  his  council  and  with  the 
supreme  court,  and  was  plunged  through  no 
fault  of  his  own  into  a  series  of  exhausting 
wars  with  the  Mahrattas  and  other  native 
states.  The  affairs  of  the  Company  were 
constantly  before  Parliament,  and  formed  the 
occasion  for  much  party  warfare,  culminating 
in  the  impeachment  and  trial  of  Warren 
Hastings.  Whig  and  Tory  statesmen  alike 
recognised  that  the  Company's  exercise  of 
sovereign  powers  was  a  danger  to  England, 
and  that  a  complete  change  of  system  was 
imperatively  required.  They  differed  as  to 
how  the  change  should  be  effected.  Was 
the  Company  to  be  put  on  one  side,  and  the 
government  and  patronage  of  India  vested 
in  the  ministry  of  the  day  ?  Or  was  the 


GOVERNMENT  OF  BRITISH  INDIA  161 

Company  still  to  administer  and  appoint 
to  offices,  while  being  brought  under  the 
supervision  and  control  of  the  ministry  ? 
The  second  alternative  was  followed  by  Pitt 
in  his  famous  Act  of  1784. 

The  constitution  created  by  Pitt  is  known 
as  the  "  double  government "  system.  It 
endured  with  some  minor  changes  till  1858, 
when  the  Crown  assumed  the  direct  govern- 
ment of  India  ;  and  many  of  its  features  have 
been  retained  in  the  present  constitution  of 
the  Indian  government.  Its  importance  there- 
fore can  hardly  be  over-rated.  The  essence  of 
the  "  double  government  "  system  was  that 
the  substance  of  authority  passed  from  the 
Company  to  the  Crown.  The  Company 
reigned  but  in  important  matters  did  not 
govern.  It  retained  the  patronage  in  respect 
of  Indian  appointments,  though  the  approval 
of  the  Crown  was  required  to  the  appointment 
of  the  Governor-General,  the  Governors  of 
Madras  and  Bombay,  and  the  Commander-in- 
Chief.  The  real  authority  in  important 
matters  was  vested  in  a  Board  of  Control. 
This  Board  consisted  of  six  privy  councillors 
(nominees,  of  course,  of  the  ministry),  but  its 
powers  were  virtually  exercised  by  its  Presi- 
dent, who  was  a  cabinet  minister.  The  Board 
saw  all  the  correspondence  from  India,  and  no 
order  could  be  sent  to  India  by  the  Court  of 
Directors  without  its  approval.  The  Board 


162    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

could  also  draw  up  orders  and  require  the 
Court  to  send  them  to  India.  Further,  there 
was  a  special  arrangement  by  which  the  Board 
could  send  to  India  and  receive  from  India 
correspondence  marked  "  secret "  without 
the  contents  being  made  known  to  the  Court 
of  Directors.  Under  this  system  the  home 
ministry  was  virtually  responsible  for  the 
policy  pursued  in  India,  and  became  account- 
able for  the  same  to  Parliament.  It  left  the 
detailed  administration  to  the  Company,  but 
as  it  had  a  final  voice  in  the  selection  of 
the  Governor-General,  it  could  make  sure 
that  the  person  appointed  to  that  high 
office  was  at  one  with  it  on  large  questions 
of  policy.  In  that  sense  he  was  a  "  parlia- 
mentary "  Governor-General,  because  he  was 
the  choice  of  the  ministry,  and  the  min- 
istry was  responsible  to  Parliament  for  his 
acts. 

From  the  passing  of  Pitt's  Act  of  1784 
the  East  India  Company  may  be  said  to  have 
administered  India  as  "  trustees  for  the 
Crown,"  though  the  phrase  was  not  used  until 
a  much  later  date.  It  is  so  used  in  the  Act 
of  1833  renewing  the  Company's  charter  on 
the  condition,  among  others,  that  it  ceased 
to  be  a  trading  association  in  India.  Pitt's 
system  retained  the  Governor-General  and  his 
council  as  the  supreme  executive  authority, 
but  gave  the  former  the  right  to  over- 


GOVERNMENT  OF  BRITISH  INDIA  163 

rule  his  council  if  occasion  required.  The 
Governor-General  in  Council  was  also  given 
the  power  to  make  laws,  at  first  in 
an  informal  way  under  the  name  of  "  regu- 
lations," but  subsequently  in  the  form 
of  Acts  and  with  the  formalities  of  a 
legislature. 

It  is  obvious  that  the  double  government 
system  could  be  altered  at  any  time  into  direct 
single  government  by  the  Crown  with  little 
difficulty.  When  the  change  was  determined 
on  after  the  mutiny,  a  Secretary  of  State  for 
India  took  the  place  of  the  President  of  the 
Board  of  Control,  and  was  given  the  assistance 
of  a  council,  the  members  of  which,  as  regards 
Indian  experience,  took  the  place  of  the  Court 
of  Directors.  In  India  the  system  of  gov- 
ernment was  not  affected.  The  Governor- 
General  in  Council  remained,  and  the  Governor- 
General  continued  to  be  a  "  parliamentary  " 
Governor-General,  responsible  to  Parliament 
through  the  medium  of  the  ministry.  In  its 
immediate  effect  the  change  in  fact  was  one 
rather  of  spirit  than  in  the  actual  structure 
of  the  government.  In  the  words  of  King 
Edward's  Proclamation,  "  it  sealed  the  unity 
of  Indian  government  and  opened  a  new 
era."  It  was  the  visible  sign  of  the  incorpora- 
tion of  India  into  the  British  empire.  It 
brought  the  Indian  peoples  and  princes  into 
immediate  relations  with  the  Crown  and 

F2 


164    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

gave  a  direct  objective  to  their  loyalty.  It 
was  a  pledge  that  the  government  would 
be  administered  with  a  sole  eye  to  their 
benefit.  It  was  also  a  pledge  that  their 
rights  and  privileges  would  be  scrupulously 
maintained,  their  religions  and  customs  re- 
spected, and  that  they  would  be  freely  and 
impartially  admitted  to  offices  in  the  public 
service. 

Since  1858  many  changes  have  been  made 
in  the  system  of  Indian  administration,  but 
the  main  structure  is  unaltered.  These 
changes  may  generally  be  ascribed  to  three 
causes — the  ever-growing  mass  of  business 
and  increasing  duties  of  the  administration, 
the  necessity  for  decentralising  the  govern- 
ment, and  the  policy  of  giving  the  Indian 
people  a  larger  voice  and  a  larger  share  in 
the  management  of  public  affairs.  The  cen- 
tral or  supreme  government  in  India  is  that 
of  the  Governor- General  in  Council.  It  is 
commonly  spoken  of  as  "  the  Government  of 
India,"  to  distinguish  it  from  the  local  gov- 
ernments. In  1858  the  council  consisted  of 
four  "  ordinary  "  or  full-time  members,  the 
Commander-in-Chief  being  usually  added  as 
a  fifth  or  "  extraordinary  "  member.  Owing 
to  the  growth  of  business  the  ordinary 
members  have  now  been  increased  to  six. 
But  this  is  not  the  full  extent  of  the  change. 
In  1858  the  council  worked  as  a  collective 


GOVERNMENT  OF  BRITISH  INDIA  165 

body.  Now  each  member  has  his  own  depart- 
ment, and  disposes  of  the  great  bulk  of  the 
work  as  a  departmental  minister,  only  the 
most  important  questions  being  reserved  for 
consideration  by  the  Governor-General  in 
Council.  In  other  words  the  departmental 
and  cabinet  system  of  our  government  and 
of  other  modern  governments  has  been 
established  in  India  with  the  happiest  results 
as  regards  economy  of  labour  and  despatch 
of  business. 

A  much  more  important  change  or  constitu- 
tional development  is  found  in  the  rise  of 
the  legislative  council  of  the  Governor- 
General.  The  supreme  law-making  power 
for  India  is  Parliament.  But  Parliament  has 
wisely  contented  itself  with  settling  the 
framework  or,  as  a  continental  statesman 
would  say,  the  "  organic  laws  "  of  government 
in  India,  and  with  delegating  to  a  legislative 
body  in  India  the  power  of  making  detailed 
laws  subject  to  the  approval  of  the  Crown. 
The  problem  has  always  been  as  to  how  this 
legislative  body  should  be  constituted.  There 
are  cogent  reasons  why  an  autocratic  govern- 
ment with  powers  derived  from  an  external 
source,  such  as  the  Indian  government  is, 
should  have  a  prevailing  voice  in  the  making 
of  the  laws  which  it  administers.  But  clearly 
it  should  not  have  the  sole  voice ;  the  voice 
of  the  people  should  also  be  heard.  Parlia- 


166  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

ment  therefore  began  in  1861  in  a  tentative 
way  to  lay  the  foundations  in  India  of  a 
deliberative  assembly  to  which  the  function  of 
making  laws  should  be  entrusted.  It  enacted 
that  the  Governor-General  and  his  executive 
council  might,  under  certain  conditions,  sit 
as  a  legislative  council,  one  of  these  conditions 
being  the  addition  of  twelve  purely  "  legisla- 
tive "  members,  of  whom  six  at  least  were  to 
be  persons  not  in  the  public  service.  The 
tiny  plant  of  those  days  has  since  grown  into 
a  large  and  vigorous  assembly.  The  legislative 
council  of  the  Governor-General  now  contains 
in  all  sixty-six  members,  of  whom  thirty 
are  non-officials.  The  latter  are  either 
returned  by  specified  electorates  or  are  other- 
wise the  representatives  of  specified  classes. 
The  legislative  council  is  no  longer  confined 
to  the  work  of  making  laws.  It  debates 
the  detailed  provisions  of  the  annual  budget 
estimates,  and  divides  on  resolutions  concern- 
ing these.  Its  members  may  put  questions 
to  the  executive  government.  They  may 
move  resolutions  on  matters  of  public  interest, 
and  debate  and  take  divisions  upon  them. 
In  these  ways  the  legislative  council  is  now 
associated  with  the  government  in  the  general 
work  of  the  administration.  Its  attitude  is 
necessarily  that  of  a  critic,  though  by  no 
means  always  an  unfriendly  critic.  If  its 
presence  keeps  the  executive  authorities  on 


GOVERNMENT  OF  BRITISH  INDIA  167 

their  mettle,  they  are  given  an  opportunity 
which  they  greatly  value  of  putting  the 
government  case  in  debate  before  the  council. 
A  clean-handed  and  efficient  government  has 
generally  a  good  defence  for  its  policy,  and 
need  not  fear  its  critics  if  it  can  meet  them  fairly 
in  debate.  The  experience  of  the  last  two 
years  (Lord  Morley's  Indian  Councils  Act 
was  enacted  by  Parliament  in  1909)  is  dis- 
tinctly satisfactory  in  this  and  other  respects. 
The  enlarged  council  has  brought  the  executive 
government  nearer  to  the  people,  and  has 
made  its  motives  more  intelligible  to  them. 
But  the  legislative  council  is  not  a  Parliament. 
Its  powers  have  been  strictly  limited  by  the 
British  Parliament,  from  whom  they  are 
derived.  It  cannot  turn  out  the  executive 
government,  it  cannot  stop  supplies,  it  cannot 
enforce  the  resolutions  that  it  passes.  For  all 
that  it  exercises  a  great  and  salutary  influ- 
ence on  the  general  administration  as  an  organ 
of  public  opinion.  It  shapes  the  laws  of  the 
country,  and  it  can  propose  new  laws  to 
meet  the  needs  of  a  progressive  society.  An 
interesting  case  in  point  is  the  bill  for  estab- 
lishing a  partial  system  of  compulsory  element- 
ary education  which  Mr.  Gokhale,  the  leader 
of  the  Indian  national  party  in  the  council, 
has  recently  introduced.  During  the  recent 
recess  its  distinguished  author  has  toured 
through  the  country  and  has  addressed 


168  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

many  public  meetings,  with  the  very  proper 
object  of  explaining  the  provisions  of  the 
measure  and  conciliating  opinion  in  its 
favour,  just  as  we  are  accustomed  to  see 
public  men  in  this  country  do  in  a  similar 
case.  This  is  an  instance  of  the  quicken- 
ing effect  which  the  recent  constitutional 
reforms  are  exercising  over  public  life  in 
India. 

The  Government  of  India,  as  the  supreme 
executive  authority  in  India,  exercises  its 
powers  in  two  ways.  Certain  departments  of 
the  state  it  keeps  in  its  own  hands  and 
directly  administers  :  others  it  has  made  over 
to  the  local  governments  :  and  in  respect  of 
these  it  contents  itself  with  supervision  and 
general  control.  In  the  former  class  are 
included  the  army  and  defence  of  the  country, 
political  relations  with  foreign  states,  the 
management  of  the  finances,  the  currency  and 
the  debt,  the  railways,  the  post  and  telegraphs. 
The  second  class  virtually  includes  the  general 
internal  administration  of  the  country.  In 
1833  British  India  consisted  of  the  three 
provinces,  or  presidencies  as  they  were  called, 
of  Bengal,  Madras,  and  Bombay.  The 
Governor-General  in  Council  administered 
Bengal  and  had  a  controlling  power  over  the 
governments  of  the  other  presidencies.  Now 
there  are  eight  important  governments,  in- 
cluding Madras  and  Bombay,  besides  the 


GOVERNMENT  OF  BRITISH  INDIA   169 

two  frontier  chief  commissionerships.  Madras 
and  Bombay  are  under  what  is  called 
council  government,  namely,  a  Governor 
appointed  by  the  Crown,  and  an  executive 
council  of  three  members.  In  Bengal  the 
Lieutenant-Governor  has  recently  been  given 
an  executive  council  of  two  members.  Four 
other  provinces — the  Punjab,  the  United 
Provinces  of  Agra  and  Oudh,  Eastern  Ben- 
gal and  Assam,  Burma — are  governed  by  a 
Lieutenant-Governor  without  an  executive 
council.  In  each  of  these  seven  provinces 
there  is  a  provincial  legislative  council, 
modelled  on  the  lines  of  the  legislative  council 
of  the  Governor-General,  and  empowered  to 
discuss  the  provincial  finances  and  other 
administrative  matters  relating  to  the  pro- 
vince. These  provincial  councils  are  of 
considerable  size ;  they  consist  largely  of 
unofficial  members  representing  constituencies 
or  classes  ;  within  certain  limits  they  make 
the  laws  of  their  respective  provinces  ;  and 
they  are  the  mouthpiece  of  the  educated 
community,  such  as  at  present  it  is,  of  the 
province. 

This  system  of  a  number  of  subordinate 
governments  and  of  a  central  government  for 
supervision  and  control  recognises  the  fact  that 
India  is  a  continent  and  not  a  single  country. 
No  other  arrangement  would  be  practicable. 
At  first  sight  it  seems  to  resemble  the  plan 


170    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

adopted  in  uniting  the  provinces  of  Canada 
in  the  Dominion  Government  and  the  Aus- 
tralian Colonies  in  the  Commonwealth  of 
Australia.  But  there  is  an  important  differ- 
ence. In  the  Canadian  and  Australian  cases 
the  separate  colonies  existed  before  union 
was  thought  of.  Their  rights  had  to  be 
carefully  defined  and  safeguarded  by  the 
Act  of  Parliament  incorporating  them  into  a 
union.  The  federal  government  thus  created 
is  based  on  a  constitutional  law  which  cannot 
be  changed  except  on  certain  strictly  defined 
conditions.  The  case  of  India  is  different. 
There  is  no  constitutional  instrument  deter- 
mining the  relation  of  the  Government  of 
India  and  the  local  governments.  The 
Government  of  India  has  supreme  and  un- 
divided authority,  subject,  of  course,  to  the 
home  government.  It  is  a  unitary  and  not 
a  federal  government.  The  local  govern- 
ments are  its  agents,  and  they  derive  their 
various  powers  from  it.  This  does  not 
mean  that  the  local  governments  lead  a 
precarious  existence,  enjoying  independence 
one  day  and  losing  it  the  next.  The 
Government  of  India  and  the  home  govern- 
ment believe  too  firmly  in  decentralisation 
for  that  to  be  possible.  The  process  is 
steadily  in  the  direction  of  enlarging  the 
powers  of  the  local  governments,  and 
the  very  fact  that  there  is  no  written 


GOVERNMENT  OF  BRITISH  INDIA  171 

constitution  and  that  a  mistake  in  one 
direction  or  the  other  can  be  repaired 
without  political  strife,  makes  advance  the 
easier. 

Let  us  see  how  the  system  actually  works, 
taking  first  the  case  of  finance.  All  the 
revenues  of  British  India,  whether  collected 
by  the  local  governments  or  by  the  central 
government,  are  paid  into  one  exchequer. 
Of  the  total  roughly  one-third  is  made  over 
to  the  local  governments  as  their  share. 
They  have  the  spending  of  some  twenty-six 
millions  sterling  out  of  seventy-eight  mil- 
lions. The  share  of  the  local  governments 
is  settled  in  the  following  manner.  Certain 
heads  of  revenue  have  been  made  over  entirely 
to  them  ;  of  others  they  receive  not  less  than 
one-half ;  others  again  belong  entirely  to 
the  Government  of  India.  Thus  the  Govern- 
ment of  India  retains  all  receipts  from  cus- 
toms, railways,  opium,  posts,  and  telegraphs, 
and  half  the  receipts  from  land  revenue, 
excise,  income-tax,  stamps.  The  local 
governments  manage  the  latter  sources  of 
revenue,  and  have  a  direct  financial  interest 
in  developing  them.  As  to  expenditure, 
similar  arrangements  are  observed.  The 
Government  of  India  defrays  the  cost  of  the 
railways  and  other  departments  directly 
managed  by  it ;  and  shares  with  the  local 
governments  the  cost  of  the  land  revenue 


172    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

and  other  departments,  the  revenue  of  which 
is  divided.  The  system  may  seem  intricate, 
and  in  its  details  it  is.  But  the  broad  principle 
is  that  the  local  governments  meet  the  needs 
of  the  internal  administration  of  the  country 
from  certain  sources  of  revenue  made  over 
to  them.  It  is  their  interest  to  develop  these 
revenues  and  to  expend  them  to  the  best 
advantage. 

The  local  government  touches  the  citizen 
at  many  points  :  the  central  government  is 
far  away.  The  local  government  dispenses 
patronage :  creates  and  appoints  to  offices. 
It  provides  law  courts  and  judges  ;  medical 
men,  hospitals  and  dispensaries  ;  makes  roads 
and  bridges ;  helps  struggling  municipalities 
with  grants  for  drainage  and  water-supply ; 
regulates  the  collection  of  the  revenue  and 
sits  in  judgment  on  the  conduct  of  the  officials. 
To  the  ordinary  citizen  it  is  the  government  so 
far  as  he  is  concerned.  Public  feeling  in 
India  is  therefore  beginning  to  take  shape 
in  provincial  moulds.  The  enlarged  legisla- 
tive councils  which  have  been  set  up  in  the 
several  provinces  encourage  this  tendency. 
The  local  council  discusses  the  provincial 
budget,  and  realises  that  more  money  could 
be  locally  spent  with  advantage.  It  sees 
that  of  the  revenues  collected  in  the  province 
a  large  part  goes  to  the  central  government 
and  is  spent  on  objects,  such  as  national 


GOVERNMENT  OF  BRITISH  INDIA  173 

defence,  that  do  not  directly  concern  the 
province.  It  does  not  question  the  necessity 
for  such  expenditure,  but  it  is  inclined  to 
think  that  it  might  be  met  in  some  other  way 
than  from  revenues  collected  in  the  province, 
or  that  other  provinces  have  been  more 
favourably  treated.  The  growth  of  a  public 
spirit  provincial  in  its  aims  is  an  interest- 
ing fact  in  modern  India.  It  has  to  be 
reckoned  with  in  other  matters  than  finance, 
as  was  seen  in  the  case  of  the  partition  of 
Bengal. 

The  most  distinctive  feature  in  Indian 
administration  is  the  "  district."  It  is  the 
administrative  unit.  Every  province  is  di- 
vided into  districts,  each  of  which  is  of  the 
size  of  one  of  the  larger  English  counties. 
"  In  India,"  Sir  John  Strachey  has  said,  in 
his  book  to  which  reference  has  been  already 
made,  "  where  an  absolute  government  is 
administered  by  a  small  body  of  foreigners 
far  more  advanced  in  civilisation  than  the 
people  of  the  country  itself,  the  most  essential 
condition  of  safety  to  the  rulers,  and  of  good 
government  to  the  people,  is  that  authority 
should  be  strong,  and  authority  cannot  be 
strong  unless  it  is  concentrated.  In  every 
district  of  British  India  the  government  has 
its  representative,  in  whom  all  executive 
civil  authority  centres."  This  officer  is  usually 
called  the  "  district  magistrate  and  collector," 


174    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

and  as  a  rule  he  is  a  member  of  the  Indian 
civil  service.  He  is  the  chief  magistrate  of 
the  district,  but  he  is  a  great  deal  more  than 
a  magistrate.  He  is  ultimately  responsible 
for  the  maintenance  of  the  public  peace,  and 
for  ensuring  obedience  to  the  laws.  In  most 
provinces  he  has  authority  over  the  police, 
and  all  the  magisterial  courts  and  jails  are 
under  his  supervision.  His  title  of  collector 
is  misleading.  In  England  a  "  collector  "  is 
a  petty  officer  who  collects  rates  and  taxes. 
In  India  the  *'  collector  "  is  the  head  of  the 
general  administration  of  the  district.  The 
term  is  full  of  history.  It  takes  us  back  to 
the  time  of  Clive  and  of  Warren  Hastings, 
when  the  right  of  collecting  the  revenues  of 
Bengal  was  ceded  to  the  Company,  while 
the  government  of  the  province  remained  in 
native  hands.  The  Company's  officers  were 
then  collectors  of  the  land  revenue  and  nothing 
more.  Later  on,  when  the  Company  took 
over  the  administration  of  the  province, 
the  collector  became  responsible  both  for 
collecting  the  revenue  and  for  the  general 
administration  of  the  district.  The  collection 
of  the  revenue  is  only  one  of  his  duties. 
He  is  concerned  with  every  aspect  of  the 
land  system,  with  the  condition  of  agri- 
culture, the  health  and  well-being  of  the 
population,  and  the  working  of  the  district 
and  borough  councils.  The  local  government 


GOVERNMENT  OF  BRITISH  INDIA  175 

turns  to  him  for  information  and  advice 
on  all  questions.  "  Upon  his  energy  and 
personal  character,"  it  has  been  said, 
"  depends  ultimately  the  efficiency  of  our 
Indian  government." 

The  duties  of  government  in  India  are  in 
many  respects  much  wider  than  in  the  United 
Kingdom.  The  British  took  over  India  in  a 
state  of  economic  nakedness.  There  were 
no  roads,  docks,  harbours,  canals,  hospitals, 
schools,  colleges,  printing  presses,  or  other 
requirements  of  civilised  life,  and  neither  the 
disposition  nor  the  means  on  the  part  of  the 
population  to  provide  them.  British  rule 
had  to  play  the  part  of  a  universal  provider 
and  special  providence :  and  having  started 
in  that  line  it  has  continually  extended  its 
functions.  "  It  manages  a  vast  forest  pro- 
perty, and  is  a  large  manufacturer  of  salt 
and  opium.  It  owns  the  bulk  of  the  railways 
in  the  country  and  directly  manages  a  con- 
siderable portion  of  them ;  and  it  has  con- 
structed and  maintains  most  of  the  important 
irrigation  works.  It  owns  and  manages  the 
postal  and  telegraph  systems.  It  has  the 
monopoly  of  note  issue,  and  it  alone  can  set 
the  mints  in  motion.  It  acts  for  the  most  part 
as  its  own  banker,  and  it  occasionally  makes 
temporary  loans  to  presidency  banks  in  times 
of  financial  stringency.  With  the  co-operation 
of  the  Secretary  of  State  it  regulates  the 


176    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

discharge  of  the  balance  of  trade  as  between 
India  and  the  outside  world,  through  the 
action  of  the  India  council's  drawings.  It 
lends  money  to  municipalities,  rural  boards 
and  agriculturists,  and  occasionally  to  the 
owners  of  historic  estates."  To  these  hybrid 
duties  may  be  added  those  that  spring  from 
the  prescriptive  right  of  the  ruling  power 
to  a  share  in  the  produce  of  the  land.  Save 
where  (as  in  Bengal)  the  government  has 
commuted  the  claim,  it  re-assesses  from 
time  to  time  the  cash  value  of  its  share. 
This  is  called  "  making  a  settlement  of  the 
land  revenue."  It  keeps  up  land  surveys 
and  registers  in  which  every  field,  the  name 
of  the  occupier,  the  crop,  the  rent  are  shown. 
It  intervenes  between  landlords  and  tenants 
for  the  protection  of  the  latter.  It  manages 
the  estates  of  indebted  or  otherwise  dis- 
qualified proprietors.  In  the  Punjab  and  in 
some  other  tracts  it  prevents  the  transfer  of 
land  from  the  agricultural  to  the  non-agri- 
cultural classes.  Further,  the  state  in 
India  is  directly  responsible  in  a  degree  un- 
known in  England  for  police,  education, 
sanitation,  medical  relief,  and  ordinary  public 
works.  Lastly,  in  times  of  drought  it  under- 
takes "  famine  relief  "  measures  on  the  scale 
of  a  great  campaign. 

Government  so  extensive  as  this  means  large 
establishments.     Some  three  million  persons 


GOVERNMENT  OF  BRITISH  INDIA  177 

are  returned  in  the  census  as  employed  in 
the    public    service.     The    majority    of    this 
army  are  merely  petty  local  offices,  such  as 
village  headmen,  watchmen,  or  accountants. 
But  the  number  of  well  paid  responsible  posts 
is   very   large,    according   to   English   ideas. 
Indians  hold  all  but  the  highest  posts,  and 
their  share  in  the  latter  is  continually  increas- 
ing.    In  1903  of  twenty-eight  thousand  posts 
carrying  salaries  of  £60  a  year  and  upwards, 
only  six  thousand  five  hundred  were  held  by 
Europeans.     This  may  be  taken  to  represent 
the  entire  European  element  in  the  whole  civil 
administration.     The    Indian    civil    service, 
which  is  recruited  by  open  competition  in 
England,   consists  of  about  twelve  hundred 
and  fifty  members,   of  whom  sixty-five  are 
Indians.     In  every  high  court  one  or  more 
of  the  judges  are  Indians.      The  executive 
council  of  the  Governor  General,  and  those 
of  Bombay,  Madras,  Bengal,  each  contain  an 
Indian    member.     These    facts    and    figures 
give    some    idea    of    the    extent    to    which 
the  government   of  British   India   is  carried 
on  by  the  people  of  the  country.     In  con- 
sidering   whether    the    European    leaven    is 
excessive,  sufficient,  or  insufficient,  it  should 
be  borne   in    mind  that  the  administration 
is    European    in    methods    and    in    guiding 
principles,   and  that    for    many  posts   tech- 
nical    and     professional     qualifications     are 


178    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

required  which  Indians  do  not  at  present 
possess. 

A  word  may  be  here  said  about  the  laws 
which  are  in  force  in  India  and  the  courts  by 
which  they  are  administered.  How  far  do 
they  observe  the  principles  of  European  justice 
and  morality  ?  The  question  opens  an 
interesting  chapter  of  history.  At  first  the 
British  courts  in  Bengal  administered  native 
law.  They  found  the  Muhammadan  criminal 
law  universally  in  force,  and  applied  it  to 
Muhammadans  and  Hindus  alike.  In  civil 
cases  they  applied  the  personal  law  of  the 
parties.  They  also  were  guided  by  the 
principle  that  no  act  committed  in  consequence 
of  a  rule  of  caste  in  native  families  should  be 
deemed  a  crime.  This  principle  saved  practices 
such  as  human  sacrifice,  exposure  of  children, 
the  burning  of  widows,  the  burying  alive  of 
lepers.  The  Muhammadan  criminal  law  also 
abounded  in  matter  which  was  equally 
objectionable  according  to  European  ideas. 
By  degrees  the  British  courts  shook  themselves 
free  from  the  worst  features  of  native  law. 
Suttee  or  widow  burning  in  1829  was  definitely 
made  a  penal  offence.  But  it  was  not  until 
1862,  when  the  penal  code  was  brought  into 
force,  that  the  procedure  of  the  courts  and  a 
good  deal  of  the  substantive  law  began  to 
conform  generally  to  European  ideas  of 
morality.  The  penal  code  prohibits  a  good 


GOVERNMENT  OF  BRITISH  INDIA  179 

many  acts  which  were  not  offences  in  Muham- 
madan  or  Hindu  eyes.  It  has  taught  a  new 
morality.  The  law  in  this  respect  has  been  a 
schoolmaster.  In  civil  matters,  where  family 
caste  or  religion  is  affected,  the  personal  or 
law  of  the  parties  still  applies.  The  Muham- 
madan  retains  his  law  of  divorce,  the  Hindu 
his  law  about  plurality  of  wives.  There  is  op- 
position here  between  our  ideas  and  those  of 
the  East,  but  it  is  too  firmly  rooted  in  radical 
differences  of  civilisation,  religion  and  race  to 
be  removed  by  the  law-giver.  Of  the  Indian 
courts  of  law  hard  things  are  often  said.  It 
is  said  that  they  are  expensive  to  the  litigant 
and  dilatory :  that  they  are  over-run  by 
petty  lawyers  and  very  technical :  that  they 
administer  a  procedure  and  legal  system  which 
are  far  in  advance  of  the  need  of  poor  and 
humble  folk.  These  complaints  are  often 
made  about  courts  of  civil  justice  in  other 
countries.  They  are  no  doubt  true  in  part 
as  regards  the  Indian  courts.  But  the  bitterest 
critic  of  the  Indian  courts  is  obliged  to  admit 
that  the  great  majority  of  the  Indian  judges 
are  now  clean  handed.  This  is  a  notable 
and  most  encouraging  fact.  It  denotes  a 
notable  rise  in  the  average  level  of  public 
morality.  It  is  due  to  education,  to  the 
moral  teaching  of  the  penal  code,  and 
to  the  example  set  by  European  public 
servants.  It  is  also  due  to  adequate  salaries 


180  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

and  pensions,  permanency  of  employ- 
ment, and  good  prospects  of  advancement. 
The  government  in  British  India  is  a 
good  master,  and  on  the  whole  is  well 
served. 


CHAPTER   VIII 

THE   NATIVE   STATES 

THE  Indian  law  codes  contain  two  definitions 
of  cardinal  importance.  One  is  "  British 
India,"  the  other  "  India."  "  British  India  " 
means  all  places  and  territories  within  the 
King's  dominions  which  are  governed  by  him 
through  the  Governor  General  in  Council. 
"  India  "  includes  British  India  "  together 
with  any  territories  of  any  native  prince  or 
chief  under  the  suzerainty  of  His  Majesty, 
exercised  through  the  Governor-General  in 
Council."  "  British  India "  is  under  direct 
British  rule.  The  portion  outside  British 
India  which  yet  is  India  is  not  under  direct 
British  rule.  It  is  occupied  by  native  princes 
or  chiefs  whose  position  as  regards  the  Crown 
is  that  of  an  inferior  power  to  the  suzerain  or 
paramount  power. 

From  this  certain  consequences  follow. 
The  laws  made  by  the  legislative  councils  in 
British  India  do  not  apply  to  the  subjects  of 
native  princes.  The  law  courts  of  British 

181 


182  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

India  have  no  jurisdiction  in  their  territories. 
Their  subjects  are  not  British  subjects.  Thus 
India  contains  a  vast  area  which,  in  many 
respects,  though  not  wholly,  resembles  foreign 
territory. 

This  circumstance  is  often  forgotten  when 
Indian  questions  are  discussed.  Often  the 
discussion  proceeds  on  the  assumption  that 
the  whole  of  India  is  under  direct  British  rule, 
and  that  the  Governor-General  in  Council, 
with  the  sanction  of  the  home  government, 
can  enforce  throughout  it  a  common  policy. 
For  example,  persons  who  object  to  opium 
production  in  India  have  on  occasions 
advocated  the  suppression  by  law  of  the 
industry  throughout  the  country,  forgetful  of 
the  fact  that  it  is  largely  carried  on  in  the 
territories  of  native  chiefs,  with  whose  terri- 
torial administration  the  British  government 
does  not  interfere  except  on  extraordinary 
and  well-known  grounds.  Again  political 
constitutions  are  sometimes  proposed  for 
India  by  extreme  reformers  that  ignore  the 
existence  of  the  native  states  and  would 
be  quite  incompatible  with  their  continued 
existence.  To  attempt  to  turn  the  flank  of 
this  difficulty  by  suggesting  that  the  native 
states  might  be  left  "  outside  "  the  scheme, 
presupposes  great  and  widespread  ignorance 
of  the  size  and  importance  of  these  states, 
of  their  history  and  traditions,  and  of  the 


THE  NATIVE  STATES  183 

pledges  given  to  their  rulers  by  the  British 
Government. 

Some  idea  of  the  importance  of  the  "  native 
states  "  problem  is  conveyed  by  the  following 
figures.  The  native  states  occupy  one-third  of 
the  area  of  the  Indian  continent  and  contain 
seventy-seven  millions  of  the  three  hundred 
and  fifteen  millions  of  persons  comprising  its 
total  population.  But  these  figures  do  not 
convey  an  adequate  idea  of  the  delicacy  and 
difficulty  of  the  task  which  the  existence  of 
these  states  and  the  maintenance  of  healthy 
relations  with  them  imposes  on  the  British 
government  and  its  officers.  The  states  vary 
greatly  in  size,  in  resources  and  civilisation, 
in  the  character  of  their  peoples  and  chiefs,  and 
in  the  amount  of  independence  which  by 
treaty  or  usage  the  latter  enjoy  in  the  internal 
administration  of  their  territories.  In  the 
case  of  the  larger  states  the  British  govern- 
ment in  ordinary  circumstances  rarely  inter- 
feres. In  the  Bombay  presidency  there  are 
clusters  of  tiny  states,  many  of  which  individu- 
ally consist  of  only  one  or  two  villages.  In  the 
hill  country  around  Simla  similar  groups  of 
petty  states  are  found.  In  such  cases  the 
exercise  by  the  chief  of  sovereign  powers 
over  his  subjects,  if  allowed  at  all,  is  carefully 
controlled  by  British  officers.  In  such  states 
politics  are  of  a  humble  order.  An  anecdote 
used  to  be  current  at  Simla  that  the  super- 


184  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

intendent  of  the  hill  states  was  one  day  waited 
upon  by  the  peasant  headmen  of  a  state, 
who,  producing  a  key,  explained  that  they 
had  deposed  their  raja  and  had  locked  him 
up  in  his  bedroom.  They  had  come  to 
seek  advice  as  to  the  next  stage  in  a  properly 
conducted  revolution.  At  the  other  end  of 
the  scale  are  large  states  that  would  form 
respectable  minor  kingdoms  in  Europe.  The 
dominions  of  the  Nizam  of  Hyderabad  or 
the  state  of  Kashmir  are  each  nearly  as  large 
as  the  mainland  of  Italy.  Hyderabad  con- 
tains twelve  millions  of  inhabitants  ;  Kashmir 
three  millions  ;  Mysore,  nearly  six  millions  ; 
Gwalior,  Jaipur  and  Travancore  about  three 
millions  each ;  Baroda  and  Jodhpur  over 
two  millions  each.  Others  have  populations 
ranging  from  one  to  two  millions.  In  these 
states  there  is  a  more  or  less  regular  system 
of  administration  modelled  on  the  system 
existing  in  British  districts.  Usually  there 
is  a  prime  minister,  who  in  Hindu  states 
is  called  the  diwan,  and  in  Muhammadan 
states  the  wazir  or  some  equivalent  name. 
There  are  other  ministers  in  charge  of 
different  departments,  a  supreme  court  of 
justice,  and  district  officers.  The  ministers 
and  judges  are  sometimes  Indians  borrowed 
from  the  public  service  of  a  British  pro- 
vince, and  such  men  bring  with  them  the 
principles  and  methods  of  modern  govern- 


THE  NATIVE  STATES  185 

ment.  Under  their  guidance  the  largest 
states  have  adopted  in  a  more  or  less  modified 
and  simplified  form  the  penal  code  of  British 
India,  the  procedure  codes  and  some  of  the 
substantive  laws.  Experiments  in  representa- 
tive institutions  have  also  here  and  there  been 
made,  though  they  are  not  allowed  to  go  far. 
In  Mysore  and  Travancore  a  representative 
assembly  is  convened  for  a  few  days  every  year, 
is  addressed  by  the  diwan,  is  permitted  to  talk 
on  public  questions,  and  is  then  dismissed. 
In  Baroda  a  beginning  has  been  made  with 
a  legislative  council.  But  the  dominant  note 
in  native  states  is  the  absolutism  of  the  ruler. 
In  states  of  the  Rajput  type,  where  the  chief 
is  the  head  of  the  clan  and  the  nobles  are  his 
blood-relations,  it  is  qualified  to  some  extent 
by  their  privileges  and  prescriptive  rights. 
But  in  states  of  the  ordinary  type  the  ruler 
is  the  state,  though  he  may  choose  to  rule 
by  deputies.  At  any  time  he  may  elect 
to  put  them  aside  and  to  take  up  the  reins : 
while  some  of  the  ablest  princes  of  India 
have  always  kept  the  detailed  administration 
of  their  states  in  their  own  hands  with 
advantage  to  their  subjects.  A  wise  and  good 
chief  finds  an  inexhaustible  pleasure  in  the 
task  of  ruling.  No  one  disputes  his  authority 
or  can  turn  him  out  of  office.  The  state  is 
his  patrimony,  and  if  he  improves  it,  the 
benefits  endure  to  his  posterity. 


186  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

How  come  native  states  to  exist  in  modern 
India  ?  How  is  it  that  we  find  these  blocks 
of  semi-foreign  territory  in  a  vast  continent 
where  British  rule  is  incontestably  supreme  ? 
If  they  are  the  relics  of  a  submerged  society, 
as  they  seem  to  be,  to  what  do  they  owe  their 
preservation  ?  An  answer  to  these  questions 
will  be  attempted,  though  it  must  necessarily 
be  of  a  concise  and  general  character.  In 
his  British  Dominion  in  India  SIR  ALFRED 
LYALL  has  observed  that  "the  present  form 
and  constitution  of  the  British  empire  in 
India  with  its  vast  provinces  and  numerous 
feudatories  represents  historically  the  gradual 
incorporation  under  one  dominion  of  states 
that  have  submitted  and  states  that  have  been 
forcibly  subdued."  Broadly  speaking,  the 
states  that  were  subdued  are  now  included  in 
British  India,  and  the  states  that  submitted 
are  now  the  native  states  of  India.  But 
exceptions  to  this  general  statement  have  to 
be  noted.  Some  states  made  their  submission 
in  the  first  instance  and  were  admitted  to 
treaty  rights,  but  were  afterwards  annexed  to 
the  British  dominions  for  special  reasons. 
Thus  the  Mahratta  state  of  Nagpur  "  lapsed," 
as  it  is  termed,  to  the  Crown  in  1853  on  the 
death  of  the  chief  without  male  issue ;  and 
the  King  of  Oudh  was  deposed  and  his 
territories  were  annexed  in  1856  on  the  ground 
of  intolerable  misgovernment.  On  the  other 


THE  NATIVE  STATES  187 

hand  some  of  the  present  native  states  were 
forcibly  subdued,  but  afterwards  were  for 
reasons  of  policy  re-established  under  other 
rulers  and  exist  to  this  day.  The  most  im- 
portant instance  is  that  of  the  Mysore  state. 
Early  in  the  eighteenth  century  the  ancient 
Hindu  dynasty  that  had  long  possessed  this 
state  was  overthrown  by  a  Muhammadan 
adventurer,  who  founded  a  military  kingdom 
and  waged  war  with  the  East  India  Company 
and  neighbouring  native  powers.  His  policy 
was  continued  by  his  son,  the  famous  Tipu 
Sultan,  who  threw  in  his  lot  with  the  French 
and  was  for  thirty  years  the  inveterate 
enemy  of  the  Company,  and  a  standing 
menace  to  the  peace  of  southern  India.  In 
1799  he  was  defeated  and  slain,  and  his 
territories  were  occupied  by  the  British  forces. 
It  was  thought  right  to  restore  the  old  Hindu 
dynasty,  and  the  present  native  state  of 
Mysore  owes  its  existence  to  the  conquerors' 
generosity.  Subject  to  such  exceptions, 
which  are  not  numerous,  the  native  states 
to-day  represent  states  which  submitted  to 
British  rule  and  accepted  the  terms  offered  to 
them. 

It  has  already  been  said  that  there  are  no 
nationalities  in  India,  and  that  its  population 
is  made  up  of  multifarious  groups  living  under 
their  own  personal  law  and  special  rules  of 
conduct.  We  must  be  careful  therefore  not 


188    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

to  read  into  the  term  "  native  states "  a 
larger  meaning  than  it  possesses.  The  term 
does  not  imply  that  these  states  are  Indian 
nationalities  which  have  survived  in  a  contin- 
ent otherwise  under  foreign  dominion.  It 
means  nothing  more  than  a  state  not  under 
direct  British  rule.  The  ruler  may  be  and  often 
is  as  much  a  foreigner  to  the  people  whom  he 
rules  as  is  an  Englishman.  Even  in  those 
cases  in  which,  as  in  the  Rajput  states,  the 
chief  is  descended  from  an  ancient  dynasty 
and  is  the  hereditary  head  of  a  military  clan, 
the  mass  of  the  population  of  his  state  does 
not  belong  to  the  clan  and  is  outside  its  organi- 
sation. But  the  Raj  put  chief  and  his  clansmen 
at  all  events  represent  an  ancient  political 
society ;  and  in  that  sense  the  Rajput  states 
may  be  said  to  stand  for  the  principle  of 
nationality.  The  same  may  also  be  said  of 
the  interesting  group  of  Sikh  states,  such  as 
Patiala  and  Nabha,  existing  in  the  eastern 
Punjab  ;  and  more  doubtfully  of  the  ancient 
Hindu  dynasties  which  survive  to  this  day  in 
the  native  states  of  Travancore,  Mysore,  and 
in  one  or  two  others.  In  all  these  cases,  it  is 
to  be  noted,  the  British  government  stood 
between  these  states  and  destruction.  They 
were  on  the  point  of  being  destroyed,  and  in 
some  cases  they  actually  had  been  absorbed, 
by  other  and  more  powerful  military  powers 
of  which  India  in  the  eighteenth  century  was 


THE  NATIVE  STATES  189 

full.  Mysore,  as  has  already  been  said,  was 
reconstituted  as  a  Hindu  state  by  the  British 
on  the  suppression  of  the  Muhammadan 
usurper,  Tipu  Sultan.  Travancore  was  rescued 
from  the  same  marauding  hands.  A  few  years 
later,  at  the  earnest  request  of  the  ancient 
chiefs  of  Rajputana,  the  British  government 
stepped  in  between  them  and  the  predatory 
Mahratta  powers  of  central  India,  and  extend- 
ing to  them  the  shelter  of  the  British  alliance 
saved  them  from  being  utterly  destroyed  by 
Scindia  and  Holkar.  In  the  same  way  the 
Sikh  chiefships  of  the  eastern  Punjab  were 
saved  from  the  rude  military  empire  built 
up  in  the  Punjab  by  Ran  jit  Singh  in  the  first 
half  of  the  nineteenth  century.  It  has  with 
perfect  truth  been  said  that  where  in  India 
"  indigenous  political  institutions  of  long 
standing  still  exist,  it  is  the  English  who 
saved  them  from  destruction."  In  those 
parts  of  India  out  of  which  the  British 
dominions  were  formed  by  the  East  India 
Company,  there  were  no  such  institutions 
remaining.  They  had  been  swept  away  by 
Muhammadan  rule,  which  in  its  effects  has 
been  likened  to  a  steam  roller.  The  provinces 
which  the  Company  acquired  were  the 
wreckage  of  the  Mughal  empire,  lying  at  the 
disposal  of  the  first  comer  who  could  keep 
them. 

The  largest  states  existing  to-day,  as  well 


190    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

as  many  smaller  ones,  represent  spoil  picked 
out  of  this  wreckage  by  successful  military 
leaders  in  the  troublous  times  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  Of  these  the  more  im- 
portant are  the  Muhammadan  state  of  Hy- 
derabad in  the  Deccan  and  the  Mahratta 
states  of  Gwalior,  Holkar  and  Baroda  in 
central  India.  The  Hyderabad  state  repre- 
sents the  last  remnant  of  Mughal  rule  in 
the  south,  for  as  has  already  been  men- 
tioned an  ancestor  of  the  present  ruler 
was  the  nizam  or  viceroy  of  the  Delhi 
emperors  in  the  Deccan.  He  threw  off  his 
allegiance  when  the  Mughal  sceptre  passed  to 
feeble  hands,  and  when  the  British  appeared 
on  the  stage  in  southern  India  he  was  an 
independent  Muhammadan  potentate,  ruling 
over  a  Hindu  population  by  means  of  a 
mercenary  army,  largely  consisting  of  Arabs. 
Circumstances  brought  his  state  at  an  early 
date  into  equal  and  friendly  alliance  with  the 
Company,  and  the  Nizams  have  long  ranked 
among  the  most  loyal  feudatories  of  the  empire. 
On  all  critical  occasions  the  late  Nizam  (died 
August  29,  1911)  was  foremost  to  proclaim 
his  personal  devotion  to  the  throne  and  his 
contentment  with  British  rule.  As  the 
premier  prince  of  India  and  the  accepted  head 
of  orthodox  Islamism  in  India  his  words  and 
his  attitude  have  had  a  great  and  salutary 
influence  on  the  whole  body  of  Indian  Muham- 


THE  NATIVE  STATES  191 

madans.  The  Mahratta  states  now  repre- 
sented by  Scindia  at  Gwalior,  Holkar  at  Indore, 
and  the  Gaikwar  at  Baroda,  arose  about  the 
same  time  as  the  Hyderabad  state.  Their 
founders  were  of  the  Mahratta  race,  which, 
issuing  from  the  fastnesses  of  the  western 
Ghats  under  the  leadership  of  Sivaji,  pulled 
down  the  decayed  fabric  of  Mughal  rule  in 
the  south  and  then  swept  over  central  and 
northern  India,  pillaging  and  exacting  tribute. 
The  ancestors  of  Scindia,  Holkar  and  the 
Gaikwar  were  successful  chiefs  in  the  Mahratta 
confederacy  over  which  the  Brahman  Peshwa 
or  hereditary  prime  minister  of  the  house  of 
Sivaji  presided.  They  possessed  themselves 
of  extensive  tracts  of  country  and  asserted  a 
general  right  on  the  strength  of  a  rescript 
extorted  from  the  captive  Delhi  emperor  to 
levy  tribute  throughout  the  empire.  They 
were  essentially  "robber"  powers,  whose 
idea  of  rule  was  to  occupy  a  province  with 
mercenary  bands  and  extract  the  last  farthing 
from  the  wretched  cultivators.  Between 
them  and  the  British  lasting  peace  on  equal 
terms  was  impossible.  The  armies  that  they 
maintained  by  the  proceeds  of  pillage  made 
them  for  half  a  century  formidable  antagonists, 
and  a  long  and  complicated  struggle,  extending 
to  every  part  of  India  and  involving  the 
fortunes  of  other  minor  native  powers,  ensued 
before  they  were  subdued  and  accepted 


192  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

British  supremacy.  A  partial  settlement  was 
made  in  1804  after  Sir  Arthur  Wellesley's  vic- 
tories over  their  forces  at  Assaye  and  Argaon. 
But  they  were  left  with  large  possessions  and 
armaments,  and  were  allowed  a  free  hand  in 
their  dealings  with  other  native  states  in  the 
interior  of  the  country  with  which  the  Com- 
pany as  yet  had  no  connection.  At  length  it 
was  found  necessary  to  bring  intolerable 
misrule  and  licence  to  an  end  by  a  complete 
political  settlement  of  central  India.  This 
was  accomplished  in  1817  by  Lord  Moira, 
afterwards  the  Marquis  of  Hastings.  The 
Rajput  and  other  minor  chiefs  were  placed 
under  the  immediate  protection  and  guar- 
antee of  the  British  Indian  government.  The 
Mahratta  states  were  disarmed,  pacified  and 
shut  up  within  carefully  defined  limits.  The 
roving  bands  of  freebooters  that  had  for  years 
harried  the  country  were  dispersed  or  exter- 
minated. The  struggle  with  the  Sikhs  had 
yet  to  come  ;  but  it  was  postponed  for  thirty 
years.  Elsewhere  throughout  the  Indian 
continent  the  British  power  was  now  beyond 
dispute  the  paramount  power.  Its  right 
and  duty  to  keep  the  peace  of  India  were 
now  universally  recognised.  "Henceforward 
it  became  the  universal  principle  of  public 
policy  that  every  state  in  India  should 
make  over  the  control  of  its  foreign  re- 
lations to  the  British  government,  should 


THE  NATIVE  STATES  193 

submit  all  external  disputes  to  British 
arbitration,  and  should  defer  to  British 
advice  regarding  internal  management  as 
far  as  might  be  necessary."  This  is 
the  keystone  of  the  Indian  political 
system. 

Two  other  examples  of  the  various  elements 
composing  the  native  states  of  India  may  be 
given.  The  Kashmir  state  is  Muhammadan 
in  population,  but  the  reigning  dynasty  is 
Hindu.  Once  an  outpost  province  of  the 
Mughal  empire  it  was  seized  by  the  Afghans 
on  the  dissolution  of  the  empire.  Ran  jit 
Singh,  in  building  up  his  Sikh  kingdom, 
turned  the  Afghans  out  of  Kashmir,  and 
granted  it  as  a  fief  to  one  of  his  generals. 
The  British,  on  the  conclusion  of  the  first 
Sikh  war,  left  the  grantee  in  possession 
of  his  fief  and  admitted  him  into  alliance 
with  them  ;  and  the  present  ruler  of  Kashmir 
is  descended  from  the  Sikh  general.  Tonk 
is  a  small  state  in  Rajputana.  It  repre- 
sents the  booty  of  an  Afghan  freebooter 
who  for  years  roamed  at  large  through  central 
India  at  the  head  of  a  regular  army  of  foot, 
horse  and  guns.  In  the  general  pacification 
of  1818  he  was  guaranteed  by  the  British 
government  the  lands  which  his  descendants 
now  hold,  as  the  price  of  disbanding  his 
troops  and  settling  down  to  peaceful 
pursuits  as  a  native  ruler  of  a  native  state. 


The  origin  of  Afghan  rule  in  the  Rampur 
state  in  the  United  Provinces  and  in  the 
Bhopal  state  in  central  India  was  very 
similar,  though  these  dynasties  are  of  earlier 
date. 

The  nature  of  the  tie  between  the  native 
states  and  the  British  government  may  now 
be  considered.  Is  the  tie  regulated  by  inter- 
national or  by  constitutional  law  ?  Do  the 
chiefs  exercise  the  rights  of  sovereign  powers, 
or  do  they  merely  occupy  a  privileged  position 
conceded  to  them  by  the  King  in  Parliament  ? 
Are  their  territories  part  of  the  dominions  of 
Great  Britain,  or  external  to  them  ?  These 
are  theoretical  questions  about  which  eminent 
authorities  have  agreed  to  differ.  They  are 
difficult  because  the  relations  of  the  native 
states  to  the  Crown  have  arisen  in  different 
ways,  because  the  powers  and  liberties  of  the 
states  differ  very  widely,  because  the  British 
government  has  never  clearly  denned  the  posi- 
tion, and  because  no  exact  guide  is  furnished 
by  history  or  by  any  other  country.  Also  we 
may  say  that  the  controversy  is  largely  one 
of  words  and  not  of  substance.  It  turns  on 
what  is  meant  by  "  sovereignty."  Some 
authorities  hold  that  "  sovereignty  "  must  be 
independent  and  unfettered,  and  is  not 
divisible.  Others  assert  that  sovereignty  can 
be  shared  by  two  parties,  and  that  there  is 
such  a  thing  as  "  semi-sovereignty."  If  the 


THE  NATIVE  STATES  195 

first  view  is  right,  the  native  chiefs  are  not  in 
the  position  of  sovereign  powers.  If  the  second 
view  is  right,  it  is  permissible  to  regard  them 
as  "  semi-sovereign."  The  second  view  would 
seem  to  fit  the  facts  better.  The  facts  not  in 
dispute  are  these.  The  British  government 
is  unquestionably  the  paramount  power  in 
India.  All  native  chiefs  acknowledge  its 
supremacy  and  owe  to  it  allegiance  and 
loyalty.  No  chief  enjoys  complete  external 
and  internal  sovereignty.  No  chief  can 
declare  war  or  peace,  or  can  negotiate  with 
any  other  chief,  much  less  with  a  foreign  state. 
All  chiefs  owe  obedience  to  the  paramount 
power,  and  must  accept  the  advice  of  the  resi- 
dent or  other  authority  representing  it.  Its 
decision  has  to  be  accepted  as  final.  Diso- 
bedience pushed  to  extremes  becomes  rebellion 
and  may  lead  to  the  chief  being  deposed.  The 
paramount  power  determines  all  questions  of 
succession  to  chiefships  and  no  succession  is 
complete  until  sanctioned.  It  is  both  the 
right  and  the  duty  of  the  paramount  power 
to  interfere  to  prevent  oppression  and  gross 
misrule  and  to  take  such  steps  as  may  be 
necessary  to  that  end.  The  paramount  power 
is  the  source  of  honours ;  it  regulates 
precedence,  fixes  salutes,  grants  titles  and 
dignities.  Lastly,  the  principles  of  inter- 
national law  do  not  apply  to  its  relations  with 
the  states. 


G2 


196     PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

The  native  princes,  on  the  other  hand,  or  the 
more  considerable  of  them,  exercise  powers 
that  are  usually  regarded  as  sovereign.  They 
make  the  laws  of  their  own  states,  they 
appoint  the  judges  and  the  executive  officers, 
they  levy  taxes,  they  inflict  punishments  on 
their  subjects.  They  and  their  subjects  are 
not  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  courts  of 
British  India,  nor  do  the  laws  of  British  India 
run  in  their  territories. 

It  seems  consistent  with  these  mutual 
relations  to  regard  the  native  princes  as  in 
a  position  of  semi-sovereignty,  and  this  view 
finds  support  in  the  utterances  of  Parliament 
and  of  the  Crown,  and  in  the  treaties  in  which 
the  present  union  originated.  Parliament  in 
divers  statutes  has  spoken  of  "  the  territories 
of  any  native  prince  or  chief  under  the 
suzerainty  of  her  Majesty,"  and  of  "  the 
dominions  of  princes  and  states  in  India  in 
alliance  with  her  Majesty."  The  Queen's 
Proclamation  of  1858  announced  to  the 
native  princes  of  India  "  that  all  treaties  and 
engagements  made  with  them  by  or  under  the 
authority  of  the  East  India  Company  are  by 
us  accepted  and  will  be  scrupulously  main- 
tained "  ;  and  this  promise  is  repeated  by 
Parliament  in  the  statute  of  1858  putting  an 
end  to  the  Company's  rule,  which  enacted 
that  "  all  treaties  made  by  the  said  Com- 
pany shall  be  binding  on  her  Majesty." 


THE  NATIVE  STATES  197 

As  the  tie  commenced  in  treaties  entered 
into  by  native  rulers  who  were  admittedly 
independent  sovereigns,  the  idea  of  semi- 
sovereignty  is  naturally  more  agreeable  to 
the  descendants  of  those  men  than  that 
of  a  purely  Parliamentary  or  constitutional 
title. 

Sentiment  apart,  the  rights  and  privileges 
of  the  princes  and  chiefs  of  India  are  what 
usage,   precedent  and   the   interpretation  of 
treaties  more  or  less  ancient  have  made  them, 
and  the  surest  guarantee  that  they  will  not 
be  diminished  lies  in  the  declared  policy  of  the 
paramount    power.     Time    was    when    the 
sovereignty   of   native   rulers   of   India   was 
ampler  and  less  fettered  than  it  is  to-day,  but 
licence  only  brought  destruction.     The  earliest 
treaties    speak    of    "reciprocal    friendship" 
and  "mutual  alliance."     The  Company  was 
struggling  for  bare  existence,  and  saw  in  the 
Nizam  of  the  Deccan  and  the  Mahratta  chiefs 
independent  states  with  resources  equal  to 
or  greater  than  its  own.     The  policy  impressed 
upon  the  Company  by  Parliament  and  by 
the  Company  on  its  Indian  servants  was  to 
avoid   increasing  the  Company's  dominions. 
If  the   strong  states  absorbed  their  weaker 
neighbours  that   was  of  no  consequence  so 
long  as   the    Company's   territory   was   res- 
pected.    The    Company's    business    was    to 
stake  out  and  stay  inside  its  own  boundaries. 


198    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

This  policy  has  been  called  the  policy  of 
the  "  ring  fence."  It  broke  down  because 
the  facts  were  too  strong  for  it.  An  ambitious 
and  restless  native  ruler  was  usually  not 
content  with  absorbing  weak  neighbours.  He 
was  sure  to  collide  with  the  Company  or  with 
allies  of  the  Company,  and  then  he  became  a 
danger  that  had  to  be  suppressed  by  war  on 
a  big  scale.  The  policy  of  the  "  ring  fence  " 
received  its  final  blow  in  1818  when  the  Rajput 
chiefs  had  to  be  rescued  from  the  grip  of  the 
"  robber  "  states  of  the  Mahratta  confederacy, 
and  the  general  pacification  of  central  India 
undertaken.  "  Subordinate  isolation  "  was  the 
keynote  of  the  new  policy.  The  native  states 
henceforth  were  made  subordinate  to  the 
paramount  power,  and  they  were  isolated 
from  each  other.  They  were  required  to 
reduce  their  armies,  to  submit  all  disputes 
to  the  British  government,  and  to  accept  its 
decisions.  But  in  respect  of  internal  affairs 
there  was  to  be  no  interference  with  the 
authority  of  the  chiefs.  In  the  event  of 
extreme  misrule  the  chief  was  liable  to  be 
deposed  and  his  state  annexed.  But  until 
he  reached  that  point,  he  was  not  pulled  up. 
Under  this  system  native  rule  went  from  bad 
to  worse.  The  king  of  Oudh  was  deposed 
and  his  kingdom  suppressed.  It  seemed  to 
be  only  a  question  of  time  when  the  same  fate 
would  befall  other  considerable  states.  Many 


THE  NATIVE  STATES  199 

officials,  including  Lord  Dalhousie,  were  so  im- 
pressed by  the  incurable  viciousness  of  native 
rule  that  they  welcomed  every  occasion  for  ex- 
tinguishing it.  For  this  reason,  when  a  Hindu 
chief  died  without  male  issue  the  general  rule 
was  to  refuse  to  allow  an  adopted  son  to 
succeed.  The  important  states  of  Satara, 
Nagpur,  and  Jhansi  in  this  way  lapsed 
to  the  British  Government.  What  with 
annexation  on  account  of  misrule  and 
"  lapse  "  on  failure  of  heirs  the  outlook  for 
native  states  was  black.  The  upheaval  of 
the  great  Indian  mutiny  and  the  transfer 
of  India  to  the  Crown  led  to  a  new  and  better 
policy. 

This  policy  has  been  called  the  policy  of 
"  union  and  co-operation."  The  native  states 
were  no  longer  regarded  as  nuisances  meriting 
removal.  They  were  guaranteed  security  of 
existence,  invited  and  assisted  to  undertake 
the  task  of  self-improvement.  The  first  step 
was  to  disarm  suspicion  and  distrust.  This 
was  done  by  the  Queen's  Proclamation  and  by 
Lord  Canning's  "  adoption  sanads."  A  sanad 
is  a  royal  warrant.  Those  granted  by  Lord 
Canning  to  the  native  chiefs  of  India  gave 
them  the  assurance  that  the  British  Crown 
desired  that  their  governments  should  be 
perpetuated,  and  to  this  end  undertook  to 
confirm  in  the  case  of  Hindu  states  the 
succession  of  an  adopted  son ;  and  in  the 


200    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

case  of  Muhammadan  states  any  succession 
legitimate  according  to  Muhammadan  law. 
"  Be  assured,"  the  sanad  ended,  "  that 
nothing  shall  disturb  the  engagement  just 
made  to  you  so  long  as  your  house  is  loyal 
to  the  Crown,  and  faithful  to  the  condi- 
tions of  the  treaties,  grants  and  engage- 
ments which  record  its  obligations  to  the 
British  government." 

Thus  a  great  burden  was  removed  from 
the  minds  of  Indian  princes.  But  time  was 
necessary  to  satisfy  them  that  the  new  policy 
would  endure  and  be  liberally  interpreted. 
Was  misrule  to  be  made  the  occasion  for 
annexation  ?  If  so,  what  house  would  long 
survive  ?  The  answer  was  given  in  the  two 
test  cases  of  Baroda  and  Mysore.  In  1875  the 
chief  of  the  Baroda  state  was  deposed  on 
account  of  notorious  misconduct  and  gross 
misgovernment.  His  issue  was  excluded  from 
the  succession.  The  state  might  have  been 
annexed,  but  as  a  special  favour  the  widow  of 
the  chief's  predecessor  was  permitted  to  adopt 
as  her  son  a  boy  selected  by  the  British 
government  from  the  Gaikwar  family.  The 
boy  was  carefully  educated,  and  during  his 
prolonged  minority  the  state  was  administered 
under  the  direct  control  of  the  resident  by 
a  staff  of  picked  officials.  The  present  ruler 
of  Baroda  owes  his  position  to  this  act  of 
clemency.  It  has  already  been  mentioned 


THE  NATIVE  STATES  201 

that  on  the  overthrow  of  Tipu  Sultan  the  old 
Hindu  line  of  pricnes  was  restored  in  Mysore. 
The  Chief  thus  installed  proved  incapable  and 
drove  his  subjects  into  rebellion.  He  was  set 
aside  and  the  country  was  placed  under  the 
direct  administration  of  British  officials  with- 
out being  actually  annexed.  On  his  death  in 
1868  the  British  recognised  his  adopted  son, 
a  child  of  eight,  as  his  successor.  In  1881, 
when  the  boy  attained  his  majority,  the 
country  was  formally  restored  to  him  by 
a  deed  of  transfer,  which  is  often  referred 
to  as  containing  the  most  complete  state- 
ment of  the  relations  subsisting  between 
the  government  of  British  India  and  its 
feudatories. 

The  maintenance  of  the  states  of  Baroda 
and  Mysore  in  circumstances  favouring  annex- 
ation went  far  to  dispel  the  doubts  of  the 
Indian  princes  as  to  the  intentions  of  the 
paramount  power.  These  doubts  were  deeply 
rooted.  The  exclamation,  "  It  will  soon  be 
all  red,"  attributed  to  Maharaja  Ranjit 
Singh,  the  Sikh  ruler  of  the  Punjab,  on  being 
shown  a  map  of  India  on  which  the  Company's 
possessions  were  shown  in  that  colour, 
represented  for  a  long  time  after  the  Queen's 
Proclamation  the  innermost  sentiment  of 
native  courts.  Something  more  was  needed 
to  inspire  not  merely  confidence,  but  warmth 
of  feeling.  A  foreign  Government  may  com- 


202    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

mand  respect,  but  so  long  as  it  is  a  colourless 
abstraction  it  does  not  excite  affection. 
Parliament  and  the  constitutional  tie  convey 
little  to  the  oriental  mind ;  but  it  readily 
responds  to  the  ideas  of  a  personal  sovereign 
and  loyalty  to  an  ancient  and  exalted  Crown. 
The  gracious  words  of  Queen  Victoria's 
Proclamation  touched  the  hearts  and  the 
imagination  of  the  chiefs.  The  impression 
deepened  as  the  long  reign  stretched  into  the 
half-century,  and  the  personality  of  the  great 
Queen  beyond  the  seas  grew  more  distinct. 
The  assumption  in  1877  of  the  title  of  "  Em- 
press of  India  "  was  in  complete  harmony 
with  this  sentiment,  as  was  also  the  stately 
ceremonial  of  the  Delhi  Assemblage  of  the 
same  year  when  the  new  title  was  proclaimed. 
"  It  is  with  the  wish,"  said  LORD  LYTTON  to  the 
assembled  chiefs,  "  to  confirm  the  confidence 
and  to  perpetuate  the  intimacy  of  the  relations 
now  so  happily  uniting  the  British  Crown 
and  its  feudatories  and  allies,  that  her  Majesty 
has  been  graciously  pleased  to  assume  the 
Imperial  title  we  proclaim  to-day."  The 
new  title  in  no  way  altered  the  constitutional 
relations  of  the  British  government  and  the 
chiefs.  But  titles  and  ceremonies  have  their 
value  as  giving  colour  and  warmth  to  common- 
place relationships.  There  is  no  doubt  that 
in  the  personal  tie  the  princes  and  chiefs 
of  India  "  found  themselves,"  as  it  were. 


THE  NATIVE  STATES  203 

It  has  given  them  a  dignified  and  acceptable 
position  in  the  empire,  and  it  commands 
their  loyalty  and  allegiance  in  a  way 
that  directly  appeals  to  their  most  venerated 
traditions. 

The  position  of  an  Indian  prince  is  in  many 
respects  an  enviable  one.  The  more  con- 
siderable princes  have  large  and  increasing 
revenues.  They  are  exempt  from  the 
obligation  of  providing  for  the  external 
defence  of  their  states.  They  and  their 
subjects  enjoy  all  the  material  improvements 
that  have  been  made  in  British  India.  They 
benefit  from  the  railways,  roads,  harbours, 
telegraphs,  postal  and  other  services  which  the 
capital  and  credit  of  the  British  Indian  govern- 
ment have  created,  and  for  which  the  subjects 
of  that  Government  have  paid.  Beyond  fixed 
tributes  of  very  moderate  amount  they  make 
no  direct  contribution  to  the  British  Indian 
treasury.  They  are  secured  in  the  peaceful 
possession  of  their  states  by  the  guarantee 
of  the  British  government.  They  may  govern 
as  they  please  as  long  as  they  do  not  violently 
depart  from  the  traditional  standard  of 
administration,  or  grossly  misgovern.  Their 
power  is  unfettered  by  constitutional  checks, 
and  their  will  absolute.  In  the  management 
of  their  estates  they  have  an  ample  field  for 
healthy  activity,  and  they  have  in  their 
union  with  the  paramount  power  a  direct 


204    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

interest  in  the  larger  affairs  of  the  Indian 
empire.  They  are  often  invited  to  co-operate 
with  the  British  Indian  government  in 
undertakings  for  the  common  good  of  India 
or  a  portion  of  India.  Now  it  is  a  joint 
canal,  now  a  railway  serving  their  states  and 
British  districts,  now  a  college  or  a  postal 
or  telegraph  service.  A  wise  and  intelligent 
prince,  and  there  are  many  such  and  the 
number  increases,  is  as  happily  placed  as 
regards  public  affairs  as  any  statesman  or 
potentate  in  the  world. 

There  are  no  doubt  drawbacks.  The  calm 
world  has  its  cankers.  Wars  and  forays 
and  kingdom-snatching  are  no  more.  Sub- 
ordinate union  implies  restraint,  however 
light  and  delicate  the  chain  may  be.  The 
British  political  officer  or  resident,  who  is 
the  agent  "of  the  British  Indian  government, 
and  the  channel  of  communication  between 
it  and  the  native  ruler,  has  to  be  kept  informed 
of  the  affairs  of  the  state,  and  has  to  advise 
the  chief  in  a  more  or  less  authoritative 
manner.  Often  the  relations  of  the  resident 
and  the  chief  are  all  that  could  be  desired. 
The  resident  is  the  trusted  friend  and  helpful 
counsellor.  The  chief  has  nothing  to  conceal 
or  to  be  ashamed  of,  and  the  resident  has 
no  call  nor  wish  to  interfere,  and  is  on  good 
terms  with  all  men.  But  sometimes  matters 
are  different,  and  then  the  curb  is  felt  and 


THE  NATIVE  STATES  205 

the  situation  is  uncomfortable.  The  general 
policy  of  the  Indian  government  and  its 
agents  is  to  interfere  as  little  as  possible 
with  the  internal  administration  of  the 
states,  and  to  overlook  practices  and  methods 
which  would  not  be  tolerated  in  British 
districts.  But  as  the  level  of  morality, 
public  and  private,  rises  in  British  India, 
backward  states  show  up  more  sharply  and 
become  more  difficult  to  defend.  "  It  is 
easy,"  said  LORD  MINTO,  when  as  Viceroy 
he  made  a  speech  at  the  capital  of  the  Udaipur 
state  that  was  read  as  a  gentle  lecture  to 
over-active  residents,  "  to  over-estimate  the 
value  of  administrative  efficiency,"  and  he 
went  on  to  say  that  "  the  methods  sanctioned 
by  tradition  in  states  are  usually  well  adapted 
to  the  needs  and  relations  of  the  ruler  and  his 
people."  The  exceptions  create  the  difficulty. 
In  the  past  British  residents  have  been 
unable  to  overlook  torture,  nose-splitting  and 
ear-lopping,  flogging  to  death  and  other 
inhuman  practices  having  the  sanction  of 
tradition  in  certain  states.  And  though 
such  excesses  are  rare  now,  the  march  of 
progress  in  India  as  a  whole  is  constantly 
exposing  deficiencies  in  the  administration 
of  states  that  refuse  to  move  with  the 
times. 

M.    JOSEPH    CHAILLY,    in    his    Adminis- 
trative Problems  of  British  India,  has  divided 


206    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

the  Indian  princes  into  three  classes  :  the 
intensely  conservative,  narrow-minded  prince 
who  entrenches  himself  in  the  customs  and 
privileges  of  his  ancestors  and  refuses  to 
reform  ;  the  enthusiastic  "  young  India  " 
chiefs,  who  discard  their  own  vernaculars 
for  English,  abandon  their  natural  dress, 
forsake  their  religion  and  its  consecrated 
practices,  and  cross  the  sea  every  two  or  three 
years  in  spite  of  caste  rules  ;  and  the  moderate 
"  young  India "  chiefs,  who  advance  more 
cautiously,  reverence  and  defend  religion 
and  caste,  and  admit  of  no  change  which 
would  be  in  conflict  with  its  institutions. 
The  latter,  he  says,  "  only  ask  from  Europe 
its  material  institutions,  its  educational 
methods,  and,  it  may  be,  its  philanthropic 
morality ;  at  bottom  they  remain  Indians, 
whether  Hindus,  Musulmans  or  Sikhs." 
His  conclusion  is  that  the  pace  towards 
progress  will  be  that  of  the  moderate  "  young 
India  "  party,  advancing  slowly  and  steadily, 
without  violent  movement  to  the  front  or 
to  the  rear.  This  is  precisely  what  the  best 
friends  of  the  princes  and  chiefs,  who  value 
their  conservative  influence  upon  Indian 
society,  and  admire  them  as  the  natural  pro- 
duct of  the  country,  would  desire.  To  retain 
that  influence  in  a  moving  India  there  must 
needs  be  some  advance.  M.  CHAILLY'S  cautious 
statement  that  "  there  has  been  substantial 


THE  NATIVE  STATES  207 

progress  in  the  administration  of  several 
of  the  more  advanced  states  " ;  and  that 
"these  states  and  their  chiefs  are  showing 
themselves  accessible  to  sentiments  of  praise 
and  blame,"  is  fully  warranted  by  the 
facts. 


CHAPTER  IX 

ADMINISTRATIVE   PROBLEMS 

A  CIVILISED  government,  by  which  is  meant  a 
government  which  keeps  steadily  in  view  the 
welfare  of  its  subjects  and  works  for  their 
betterment  on  a  settled  plan,  is  never  without 
its  problems  and  its  difficulties.  Of  these 
the  Indian  government  has  its  full  share. 
Some  of  these  are  common  to  civilised  and 
progressive  rule  as  such ;  others  are  peculiar 
to  British  rule  in  India. 

A  general  idea  of  these  problems  may  be 
gathered  from  what  has  been  said  in  the 
preceding  sections  regarding  the  past  of 
India  and  the  present  condition  of  its  peoples. 
In  a  rough  classification  they  fall  into  three 
groups ;  problems  of  external  defence,  prob- 
lems of  internal  administration  and  problems 
of  political  or  constitutional  development. 

For  many  years  the  existence  of  British 
rule  in  India  was  bound  up  with  the  problem 
of  external  defence.  The  primary  care  of 
the  British  was  to  obtain  and  hold  defensible 

208 


ADMINISTRATIVE  PROBLEMS    209 

frontiers.  At  first  they  were  sought  within 
India  itself,  but  as  British  dominion  grew, 
the  lines  of  defence  were  pushed  beyond 
India  proper  towards  Afghanistan  and  Persia 
on  the  west,  and  Siam  and  the  French  posses- 
sions on  the  east.  From  time  to  time  all 
other  matters  of  government  have  had  to  be 
subordinated  to  the  imperious  needs  of 
external  defence.  These  needs  still  make 
heavy  calls  upon  the  finances  of  the  country. 
The  insurance  of  the  peace  of  three  hundred 
millions  of  people  is  not  a  small  affair.  Happily 
of  late  years  the  course  of  events  in  Afghani- 
stan and  Russia  has  been  favourable  to  the 
security  of  India,  and  for  the  present  at  least 
the  problem  of  external  defence  may  be  said 
to  be  satisfactorily  met. 

Recent  changes  and  improvements  have 
made  the  Indian  army  one  of  the  most 
efficient  in  the  world.  Its  distribution  over 
the  vast  area  which  it  holds  is  the  result 
of  the  most  careful  thought,  and  its  armaments 
and  equipment  are  in  accordance  with  the 
latest  military  ideas.  The  problems  that 
it  suggests  are  not  concerned  with  the 
possibility  of  making  it  a  more  efficient  force, 
but  with  its  strength,  its  composition  and  its 
cost.  The  regular  army  in  India  consists 
of  about  two  hundred  and  thirty-five  thousand 
men,  British  troops  being  to  native  troops 
in  the  proportion  of  one  to  two.  Judged  by 


210    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

European  standards,  it  is  one  of  the  smallest 
armies  in  the  world  for  the  duties  which  it 
has  to  perform,  these  duties  being  to  preserve 
international  peace  and  to  defend  India 
against  aggression.  Many  military  experts 
consider  it  dangerously  small.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  is  from  its  composition  necessarily 
an  expensive  army,  and  its  composition  could 
not  be  altered  without  danger  to  its  efficiency. 
The  ratio  of  one  British  soldier  to  two  Indian 
soldiers  is  fundamental.  To  maintain  a 
voluntary  army  of  seventy-five  thousand 
British  troops — the  present  strength  of  the 
British  army  in  India — means  a  good  rate 
of  pay  and  liberal  concessions  of  various 
kinds,  all  costing  money.  The  large  staff  of 
British  officers  required  for  these  troops  and 
for  the  native  army  has  also  to  be  raised  on 
the  voluntary  system,  and  at  market  rates 
of  pay.  Thus  the  British  element  in  the 
army  in  India  is  expensive.  To  increase  it 
would  increase  recruiting  difficulties  in  this 
country,  besides  largely  adding  to  the  military 
burdens  of  India.  But  without  an  increase 
in  the  British  troops  employed  in  India  there 
can  be  no  increase  in  the  total  strength  of 
the  regular  army  in  India.  The  present 
strength  has,  therefore,  to  be  regarded  as  a 
maximum,  and  the  Indian  government's 
chief  concern  is  to  satisfy  civilian  critics  that 
the  strength  is  not  excessive.  Some  Indian 


ADMINISTRATIVE  PROBLEMS    211 

members  of  the  Viceroy's  legislative  council, 
in  their  anxiety  to  see  a  larger  part  of  the 
public  revenues  spent  on  education  and  other 
social  services,  question  the  necessity  for  the 
present  scale  of  military  expenditure.  Their 
contention  is  that  twenty-one  millions  sterling 
for  the  army  out  of  a  total  public  expenditure 
of  seventy-eight  millions  sterling  is  dispropor- 
tionate to  the  relative  needs  of  external 
defence  and  internal  administration.  We  may 
sympathise  with  the  advocates  of  a  small 
and  cheap  army,  yet  may  doubt  whether 
they  fully  realise  the  risks  to  which  an  in- 
sufficiently defended  India  would  be  exposed. 
A  generation  that  has  known  peace  only  is 
apt  to  view  it  as  a  thing  easily  come  by. 

The  defence  of  India  is  the  defence  of  the 
north-west  frontier.  The  possible  sources 
of  danger  are  three  :  the  independent  Pathan 
tribes  interposed  between  British  India  and 
Afghanistan,  the  kingdom  of  Afghanistan, 
and  the  Russian  empire.  Speaking  generally, 
the  method  of  dealing  with  the  problems 
involved  in  the  defence  of  the  frontier  has  been 
to  isolate  each  danger  spot  and  treat  it  separ- 
ately. With  Russia  a  treaty  was  made  in 
1907,  which  so  long  as  it  endures  relieves 
India  of  anxiety  from  this  quarter.  With 
those  of  its  provisions  that  relate  to  Persia 
we  are  not  here  concerned,  except  in  so  far 
as  they  prevent  strife  between  England  and 


212    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

Russia  which  might  react  on  India.  Those 
relating  to  Afghanistan  place  that  kingdom 
definitely  within  the  sphere  of  British  influence 
and  renounce  Russian  ambitions  in  that 
direction.  Afghanistan  is  thus  isolated  and 
can  no  longer  play  one  of  its  great  neighbours 
against  the  other.  It  is  true  that  the  treaty 
provisions  regarding  Afghanistan  do  not  come 
formally  into  force  until  the  assent  of  the 
Amir  has  been  obtained,  and  that  so  far  the 
Amir  has  not  assented.  But  virtually  they  are 
in  force,  for  the  two  governments  are  acting 
upon  them.  Lastly,  between  Afghanistan  and 
British  India  a  long  stretch  of  mountainous 
country  inhabited  by  tribes  akin  to  the  races 
of  Afghanistan  has,  by  an  arrangement 
made  in  1893  with  the  late  Amir,  been 
brought  under  British  control  and  constituted 
a  protectorate.  They  are  thus  isolated  from 
Afghanistan,  and  though  they  are  permitted 
to  retain  complete  independence  and  indulge 
in  blood-feuds,  murder  and  tribal  warfare 
to  their  hearts'  content,  the  control  is  sufficient 
to  keep  the  peace  of  the  border  and  to  allow 
the  inflow  of  civilising  influences.  There  are 
seasons  of  unrest  when  the  independent 
tribes  and  their  kinsmen  in  Afghanistan 
seem  inclined  to  make  common  cause  against 
the  infidel  in  India,  and  to  rush  into  war. 
Such  a  war  would  be  a  very  serious  matter, 
as  the  whole  border  land  is  now  armed  with 


ADMINISTRATIVE  PROBLEMS    213 

modern  weapons  as  at  no  former  time.  But 
the  influences  making  for  peace  are  many  and 
their  strength  increases.  Viewed  as  a  whole, 
the  problems  of  the  external  defence  of  India 
do  not  at  present  give  cause  for  anxiety. 

The  problems  of  internal  administration, 
on  the  other  hand,  tend  to  become  more 
urgent  and  more  intricate.  We  may  liken 
India  when  it  came  under  British  rule  to  a 
vast  domain  taken  over  in  a  state  of  complete 
dilapidation.  It  was  without  any  of  the 
appliances  or  furniture  of  a  civilised  state. 
The  first  efforts  of  the  new  rulers  were  directed 
to  meeting  its  most  pressing  necessities. 
Codes  of  law,  courts  of  justice,  police  and 
prisons,  a  trained  civil  service  were  gradually 
provided.  Roads  were  made,  and  these  were 
followed  by  railways,  postal  and  telegraph 
services.  Then  the  great  rivers  were  taken 
in  hand  and  made  to  provide  irrigation  on 
a  scale  far  exceeding  anything  known  in  the 
world's  history.  Comparing  India  as  it  was 
at  the  time  of  the  mutiny  with  present-day 
India,  we  might  be  inclined  to  say  that  its 
transformation  into  a  modern  state  was  now 
complete.  But  as  an  explorer  may  climb 
a  hill  only  to  find  the  prospect  blocked  by 
higher  summits,  so  the  Indian  government 
as  the  result  of  its  labours  is  faced  by  new 
demands  and  problems.  It  has  met  in  a 
fairly  satisfactory  way  the  needs  of  a  modern 


214  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

state  and  prepared  India  for  the  industrial 
revolution  which  every  progressive  com- 
munity must  sooner  or  later  pass  through. 
The  country  can  now  pass,  and  in  fact  is 
now  passing,  from  the  simple  agricultural 
stage  to  modern  organised  industries  and 
world-wide  commerce.  But  the  transition 
both  reveals  defects  and  creates  new  wants. 
The  Indian  government  is  held  responsible 
for  these  defects,  and  is  expected  to  satisfy 
these  wants. 

The  industrial  change  that  is  passing  over 
India  is  of  a  twofold  kind.  In  the  first  place, 
the  agriculture  of  the  village  community  is 
no  longer  governed  by  local  conditions  and 
restricted  to  supplying  the  requirements 
of  the  inhabitants  or  the  immediate  neigh- 
bourhood. Sixty  years  ago  the  wheat  or 
cotton  grown  in  the  village  was  consumed 
locally.  There  were  no  roads,  much  less 
railways.  Now  thousands  of  tons  of  Indian 
produce  are  sold  in  London  before  it  has 
actually  been  harvested.  In  the  Punjab  some 
millions  of  acres  of  once  barren  land  in  districts 
as  rainless  as  Egypt  have  been  brought  under 
cultivation  by  means  of  great  canals  drawn 
from  the  snow-fed  rivers,  and  everywhere 
else  a  similar  speeding  up  of  agriculture 
to  supply  the  demands  of  distant  countries 
may  be  observed.  This  marked  change  in 
the  rural  economy  of  India  is  due  primarily 


•      ADMINISTRATIVE  PROBLEMS    215 

to  canals  and  railways,  secondly  to  an  all- 
round  improvement  in  trading  facilities  (har- 
bours, docks,  posts,  and  telegraphs),  and 
thirdly,  to  the  stimulus  which  peace  and 
justice  give  to  commercial  enterprise. 

The  other  and  more  important  change  is 
the  rise  of  large  modern  industries  in  India. 
As  yet  these  are  confined  to  a  few  centres, 
but  in  the  judgment  of  many  persons  the 
movement  is  but  beginning.  In  and  around 
Calcutta  there  are  numerous  jute  mills  rivalling 
those  of  Dundee,  and  in  Bombay  over  two 
hundred  cotton  mills  which  compete  success- 
fully with  those  of  Lancashire.  In  Burma 
there  are  many  rice  mills  for  the  husking 
and  polishing  of  rice,  and  in  all  parts  of 
India  small  factories  of  different  kinds  are 
springing  up.  Coal  is  extensively  mined  in 
Bengal  and  in  two  other  provinces,  and  a 
huge  iron  and  steel  plant  is  being  put  down 
in  a  district  where  inexhaustible  quantities 
of  good  iron-stone  exist.  "  The  germ  of 
manufacture  on  modern  lines,"  SIR  THEO- 
DORE MORISON  writes,  in  describing  the 
industrial  transition  of  India,  "  has  already 
been  planted,  and  has  shown  a  wonderful 
capacity  to  thrive  in  an  Indian  environment." 

Changes  of  this  kind  coming  over  a 
population  of  more  than  three  hundred 
millions  create  serious  administrative 
problems.  The  change  in  agriculture  has 


216  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

affected  many  interests.  Land  has  greatly 
increased  in  value.  The  great  landlords 
desire  higher  rents ;  the  trading  and  pro- 
fessional classes  seek  to  acquire  estates  from 
the  peasant  proprietors.  Two  evils  have 
arisen.  The  poor  and  ignorant  cultivator 
is  rack-rented  or  evicted.  The  peasant  owner 
is  induced  to  involve  himself  in  debt  and 
ultimately  to  part  with  his  land.  The 
problem  of  protecting  the  tenant  against 
the  landlord  and  the  small  owner  against  the 
money-lender  is  in  some  form  or  other  always 
before  the  Indian  government.  Probably  in 
no  country  has  it  been  studied  more  closely 
or  more  frequently  dealt  with  by  legislation. 
There  is  a  special  reason  for  this  over  and 
above  the  importance  of  maintaining  agri- 
culture, the  paramount  industry  of  India, 
in  a  sound  and  healthy  condition.  The 
Indian  government,  in  accordance  with 
immemorial  usage,  is  theoretically  the  owner 
of  all  land  in  India.  It  has  relinquished  a 
large  part  of  its  theoretical  rights,  and  land 
is  owned  by  private  persons  and  is  bought 
and  sold  as  in  this  country.  But  it  still 
retains  the  right  to  a  share  in  the  produce. 
This  share  is  not  defined  by  law  and  might 
be  such  as  to  absorb  all  the  profits  of  agricul- 
ture and  make  private  ownership  valueless. 
Under  former  native  governments  (and  still 
in  some  native  states)  this  has  actually 


ADMINISTRATIVE  PROBLEMS    217 

occurred.  But  in  British  India  the  govern- 
ment of  its  own  free  will  has  reduced  its 
demand  to  a  very  moderate  land-tax.  The 
rules  under  which  the  "  land  revenue,"  as 
it  is  called,  is  assessed,  are  very  technical 
and  cannot  here  be  described.  But  the 
broad  result  is  that  owners  of  land  in  India, 
after  paying  the  land-tax,  are  left  with  very 
considerable  profits.  In  the  irrigation  colonies 
of  the  Punjab,  for  instance,  the  selling  price 
of  land  subject  to  the  land-tax  is  £10  and 
upwards  the  acre.  No  one  would  give  this 
price  for  land  if  the  dues  upon  it  were  ex- 
cessive. The  policy  of  the  Indian  government 
is  to  keep  the  land  assessment  low  for  the 
encouragement  of  the  cultivator  and  the 
small  owner.  But  its  policy  would  be  nullified 
if  owners  of  large  estates  were  to  rack-rent 
their  tenants,  or  if  the  small  owners  were 
wheedled  out  of  their  ancestral  acres  by 
the  money-lending  classes.  Therefore  the 
government  is  always  vigilant  and  ready 
to  step  in  with  protective  laws.  Each  province 
has  its  special  tenancy  law,  the  general  aim 
of  which  is  to  secure  to  the  tenants  fair  rents 
and  freedom  from  arbitrary  eviction ;  and 
in  some  provinces,  where  the  land  is  owned 
not  by  large  landlords  but  by  petty  peasant 
proprietors,  its  transfer  to  the  money-lending 
and  trading  castes  is  prohibited. 

There  are  many  other  problems  connected 


218     PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

with  the  land  and  the  state's  stake  in  it. 
The  Indian  cultivator  has  many  good  qualities, 
but  he  is  often  without  sufficient  capital  and 
might  make  more  of  the  land  with  better 
seed  and  appliances.  The  government  lends 
him  money,  has  started  co-operative  credit 
societies  which  promise  well,  and  employs 
agricultural  experts  to  instruct  and  advise 
him.  Again,  the  periodical  revision  of  the 
land  assessments  (they  run  from  twenty  to 
thirty  years  in  the  different  provinces)  is 
a  serious  and  weighty  undertaking.  Moderate 
as  these  assessments  are,  the  strict  exaction 
of  the  land-tax  in  bad  seasons  would  be 
ruinous  to  the  small  owner.  The  policy, 
therefore,  is  to  postpone  the  collection  of 
the  tax  in  such  seasons,  or  even  to  remit 
it.  All  this  involves  an  immense  amount 
of  inspection  and  regulation.  Very  serious 
problems  also  arise  in  connection  with  the 
great  irrigation  canals  that  spread  their 
branches  over  the  face  of  the  country,  changing 
the  character  of  the  cultivation,  the  value 
of  the  land  and  the  habits  of  the  agriculturists. 
The  settlement  of  a  million  colonists  on  the 
once  desert  lands  of  the  Chenab  canal  in  the 
south-western  Punjab  was  an  operation  of 
infinite  difficulty  and  responsibility.  The 
revenue  and  the  irrigation  officers  had  to 
lay  out  fields  and  villages,  select  colonists 
of  the  proper  class,  settle  the  conditions  on 


ADMINISTRATIVE  PROBLEMS    219 

which  land  would  be  granted,  fix  fair  rates 
in  payment  of  water  supplied,  establish 
markets  and  construct  roads,  found  townships, 
and  organise  and  set  going  a  new  society. 
What  was  done  on  a  large  scale  in  the  case 
of  the  Chenab  canal  is  done  on  a  smaller 
scale  wherever  the  beneficent  but  disturbing 
influence  of  a  new  canal  is  felt.  The  revenue 
officer,  as  he  is  called,  and  his  subordinates 
are  much  more  than  a  tax-collecting  agency. 
They  represent  the  state  in  its  capacity  as  a 
co-owner  and  co-manager  of  the  land  of 
India.  They  are  concerned  with  everything 
that  affects  the  welfare  of  the  occupiers  of  the 
public  estate,  or  that  tends  to  its  improvement 
or  detriment.  No  department  of  the  state 
touches  the  peasant  so  closely  or  at  so  many 
points  as  the  land  revenue  administration. 
And  the  Indian  peasant,  as  Lord  Curzon  said 
in  his  farewell  speech  in  Bombay,  is  "  the  bone 
and  sinew  of  the  country,"  the  first  and  final 
object  of  the  government's  regard. 

Another  set  of  problems  is  created  by  the 
growth  of  trade  and  industries  and  the  great 
overseas  traffic  of  India.  In  the  first  place 
there  is  the  problem  of  the  overcrowded  and 
insanitary  city.  It  is  serious  enough  in  this 
country.  It  is  much  graver  in  Calcutta  and 
Bombay.  Into  these  and  other  large  towns 
a  poor  and  ignorant  population  has  been 
rapidly  drawn  from  country  villages,  with 


220     PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

little  thought  for  its  accommodation  and 
decent  living.  Travellers  have  often  described 
the  almost  inconceivable  overcrowding  and 
wretchedness  of  the  "  chawls  "  or  tenement 
blocks  of  Bombay  and  the  dismal  squalor 
of  Calcutta  and  Rangoon.  Matters  are 
improving,  for  the  baneful  results  of  past 
neglect  are  now  recognised,  and  the  govern- 
ment has  come  to  the  help  of  the  municipal 
corporations  with  money  and  skilled  advice, 
and  has  induced  them  to  accept  city  improve- 
ment schemes  on  large  and  well-considered 
lines.  But  time  has  been  lost  and  a  great 
deal  of  leeway  has  to  be  made  good. 
In  other  respects  also  the  conditions  of 
factory  life  in  India  are  bad.  The  Indian 
factory  hand  is  an  agriculturist  temporarily 
attracted  to  the  town  by  relatively  high 
wages.  His  object  is  to  earn  as  much  as 
he  can  within  a  short  time,  spend  on  himself 
as  little  as  need  be,  and  to  return  with  his 
savings  to  his  village.  He  is  an  easy  victim 
to  overtime  and  excessive  hours,  and  will 
live  uncomplainingly  in  the  vilest  hovel  amid 
infinite  dirt  and  discomfort.  He  is  ignorant, 
weak,  and  unorganised.  The  inquiries  of  the 
Factory  Labour  Commission  showed  that  in 
most  Indian  factories  since  the  introduction  of 
electric  light  the  working  hours  had  been 
grossly  excessive,  and  child  labour  greatly 
abused.  A  new  Factory  Act  has  now  definitely 


ADMINISTRATIVE  PROBLEMS    221 

fixed  the  hours  of  labour  for  all  classes  of 
operatives  and  in  other  ways  improved 
their  position.  But  very  much  remains  to 
be  done  before  the  modern  industries  of 
India  or  the  condition  of  life  in  the  great 
towns  can  be  regarded  with  satisfaction. 

The  insanitary  and  congested  city  is  only  a 
part  of  the  general  problem  of  the  public 
health  in  India.  The  problem  is  raised 
with  increasing  persistence  by  the  industrial 
development  of  the  country.  The  now  close 
connection  of  India  with  the  outer  world 
inevitably  calls  attention  to  its  sanitary 
condition,  and  its  sanitary  condition  is 
unfortunately  bad.  Time  was  when  pesti- 
lence and  epidemic  disease  in  India  were 
thought  to  affect  India  alone.  Now  they 
are  matters  of  international  concern.  When 
plague  or  cholera  is  active  in  India,  Europe 
grows  restive  and  threatens  to  close  its  ports 
to  Indian  vessels  or  to  subject  them  to  strict 
quarantine.  During  the  last  fifteen  years 
India  has  suffered  from  a  terrible  visitation 
of  plague.  Imported  from  China  in  1896 
the  disease  has  fastened  itself  on  the  domestic 
rat  of  India,  and  is  passed  from  these  animals 
to  human  beings.  It  defies  the  efforts  of  the 
doctors,  has  occasioned  upwards  of  seven 
million  deaths,  and  has  been  the  cause  of 
unspeakable  misery  and  wretchedness.  An 
epidemic  of  the  kind  so  protracted  and  so 


222    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

widespread  seems  an  outrage  upon  civilisation. 
It  has  added  greatly  to  the  strength  of  the 
outside  demand  that  strenuous  efforts  should 
be  made  to  improve  the  public  health  of 
India.  But  the  problem  is  one  of  immense 
difficulty.  At  first  sight  the  improvement 
of  the  Indian  village  seems  a  simple  matter 
compared  with  the  more  complicated  case 
of  the  cities.  But  it  is  not  as  easy  as  it  looks. 
It  is  not  merely  a  question  of  drainage  or 
water  supply,  but  of  a  radical  change  in  the 
general  standard  of  living  and  in  the  habits  and 
prejudices  of  centuries.  The  money  difficulty 
alone  is  formidable,  but  the  social  and  political 
difficulty  is  greater.  It  has  been  said  that 
the  East  does  not  particularly  want  our 
drain-pipes,  and  that  its  ideals  of  comfort 
and  cleanliness  are  not  ours.  And  yet 
without  the  co-operation  of  the  people  sani- 
tary reform  in  rural  India  will  make  little 
progress.  In  this  matter  the  Indian  adminis- 
tration is  between  two  fires.  On  the  one 
side  the  commerce,  the  science,  the  humanity 
of  Europe  blame  it  for  apathy  and  timidity. 
On  the  other  hand,  its  own  officers  warn  it 
that  nothing  is  more  unpopular  with  the 
masses  than  sanitary  reform,  and  that  no 
great  improvement  is  possible  until  this 
attitude  is  changed. 

How  can  this  change  be  brought  about? 
Mainly,  it  is  believed,  by  means  of  education. 


ADMINISTRATIVE  PROBLEMS    223 

Of  all  administrative  problems  the  improve- 
ment and  diffusion  of  education  in  India 
is  probably  the  one  that  at  the  present 
moment  weighs  most  heavily  with  the  govern- 
ment. Most  of  the  difficulties  which  modern 
India  presents  have  their  roots  in  the  ignorance 
or  defective  education  of  the  people.  The 
masses  have  far  too  little  education ;  the 
education  of  the  minority  is  gravely  defective. 
"  It  cannot,"  said  Lord  Curzon,  in  address- 
ing the  educational  conference  convened  by 
him  at  Simla  in  1901,  "  be  a  right  thing  that 
three  out  of  every  four  country  villages 
should  still  be  without  a  school,  and  that 
not  much  more  than  three  million  boys,  or 
less  than  one-fifth  of  the  total  boys  of  school- 
going  age,  should  be  in  receipt  of  primary 
education."  And  he  put  the  urgency  of  the 
problem  in  the  following  words  :  "  What  is 
the  greatest  danger  in  India  ?  What  is  the 
source  of  suspicion,  superstition,  outbreaks, 
crime,  yes,  and  also  of  much  of  the  agrarian 
discontent  and  suffering  among  the  masses  ? 
It  is  ignorance.  And  what  is  the  only  antidote 
to  ignorance  ?  Knowledge.  In  proportion 
as  we  teach  the  masses,  so  shall  we  make  their 
lot  happier,  and  in  proportion  as  they  are 
happier,  so  they  will  become  more  useful 
members  of  the  body  politic."  The  impulse 
given  by  Lord  Curzon  to  elementary  education 
has  led  to  a  notable  increase  in  the  number 


224    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

of  schools.  There  are  now  nearly  four  million 
boys  attending  elementary  schools.  But  this 
larger  number  still  leaves  some  ten  or  twelve 
million  boys  to  be  accounted  for,  while 
the  girl  population  of  India  is  still  practically 
uneducated.  The  figures  convey  some  idea 
of  the  magnitude  of  the  problem,  but  they 
do  not  adequately  express  its  difficulty. 
Even  if  there  were  money  and  teachers 
enough  to  provide  a  school  in  every  village, 
the  inclination  to  make  use  of  it  would  still 
have  to  be  created  among  the  masses.  Rural 
India  stoutly  disbelieves  in  education.  In 
the  existing  schools  there  are  many  vacant 
places  solely  because  the  peasant  prefers 
to  keep  his  sons  at  home,  and  dreads  the 
effects  of  books  on  their  habits  and  character. 
These  conservative  ideas  are  weakening  and 
will  weaken ;  but  for  the  present  they  are 
an  obstacle  that  none  aware  of  the  delicate 
task  of  ruling  India  would  wish  to  ignore. 
Free,  compulsory,  universal  education  for 
the  population  of  India  is  still  a  long  way  off. 
But  it  is  an  ideal  that  will  have  to  be  kept 
in  sight  and  followed  as  time  and  circumstance 
permit,  if  India  is  to  make  the  best  of 
the  new  industrial  conditions  now  opening 
to  it. 

Equally  important  and  pressing  is  the 
problem  of  the  reform  of  the  higher  education 
in  India.  The  existing  system  is  the  frequent 


ADMINISTRATIVE  PROBLEMS    225 

subject  of  attack.  It  is  said  to  be  "  mechani- 
cal, lifeless,  perverted " ;  to  fail  to  form 
character  or  to  produce  useful  citizens  ; 
to  be  based  on  a  low  standard  of  teaching 
and  a  lower  standard  of  learning ;  to  en- 
courage cram  and  to  discourage  thought. 
MR.  H.  R.  JAMES,  whose  position  and  experi- 
ence as  the  head  of  the  presidency  college, 
Calcutta,  qualify  him  to  speak  with  some 
authority,  has  examined  these  charges  hi  a 
recent  work,  Education  and  Statesmanship 
in  India,  and  maintains  with  some  reason 
that  they  are  unnecessarily  severe,  and 
that  they  do  not  sufficiently  allow  for 
the  adverse  conditions  with  which  higher 
education  in  India  has  had  to  contend. 
But  however  that  may  be,  MR.  JAMES 
frankly  admits  the  many  serious  deficiencies 
of  Indian  high  schools  and  colleges  and  of  the 
university  system,  and  acknowledges  that 
out  of  the  reforms  begun  by  Lord  Curzon 
"  has  been  born  a  new  life  for  higher  education 
in  India."  One  of  these  reforms  was  the 
passing  of  an  Act  that  remodelled  the  con- 
stitutions of  the  four  Indian  universities. 
Others  were  concerned  with  the  improvement 
of  the  teaching,  the  buildings  and  the 
apparatus  of  the  schools  and  colleges  ;  with 
lightening  the  burden  of  the  examination 
system,  discouraging  cram  and  making  the 
courses  of  study  more  useful  and  more 


226  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

intelligible  to  Indian  students  ;  and  lastly, 
with  better  provision  for  scientific,  engineering, 
medical  and  other  technical  instruction. 
Reforms  of  this  kind  are  not  completed  in 
a  day.  The  improvement  of  secondary  and 
higher  education  in  India  has,  in  fact,  only 
commenced.  To  carry  it  through  will  make 
large  demands  both  on  the  government  and 
on  the  public  spirit  of  the  community. 

But  better  sanitation  and  better  education 
do  not  exhaust  the  needs  of  new  India.  The 
progress  of  the  country  makes  many  other 
calls  upon  the  administration.  Now  it  is 
demanded  that  the  police  should  be  reconsti- 
tuted and  made  more  efficient ;  or  it  is  com- 
plained that  the  courts  of  justice  and  the 
staff  of  judges  are  unable  to  cope  with 
the  volume  of  work  before  them,  or  that  the 
revenue  establishments  are  found  to  be  over- 
worked and  underpaid  ;  or  again  the  hospitals 
and  dispensaries  are  said  to  be  below  the 
standard  of  modern  requirements.  All  these 
demands  mean  money.  Behind  all  the  special 
administrative  problems  is  the  fundamental 
problem  of  insufficient  revenues.  The  Indian 
government  is  in  the  difficult  position  of 
having  to  meet  the  needs  of  a  modern  state 
from  the  slender  resources  of  an  oriental 
community.  Taxation  in  India,  judged  by 
European  standards,  is  very  low.  There  are 
no  death  or  estate  duties.  The  land-tax  is 


>     ADMINISTRATIVE  PROBLEMS    227 

not  oppressive,  not  exceeding  an  average  rate 
of  two  shillings  the  acre ;  and  as  a  set  off 
against  it  incomes  derived  from  land  or  agri- 
culture are  exempt  from  income-tax.  The 
latter  tax  at  the  rate  of  about  sixpence  in  the 
pound  consequently  yields  little.  The  remain- 
ing tax  revenue  is  derived  chiefly  from  drugs 
and  alcohol,  the  customs  duties  at  the  ports, 
stamp  duties  on  deeds  and  documents,  and 
salt.  The  salt  duty,  which  is  often  stigma- 
tised as  a  peculiarly  wrong  and  oppressive 
tax,  has  of  late  years  been  largely  reduced, 
and  now  is  less  than  one  farthing  the  pound. 
The  poor  man  pays  in  the  course  of  the  year 
between  two  and  three  pence  on  account  of  salt 
duty,  and  possibly  threepence  on  account  of 
customs  duties  on  imported  articles.  If  he  does 
not  drink  and  refrains  from  litigation,  this  is 
the  extent  of  his  taxation.  Over  the  whole 
population,  rich  and  poor,  the  taxation,  exclu- 
sive of  the  land-tax,  is  less  than  two  shillings 
a  head.  But  light  as  this  may  seem,  every 
farthing  subtracted  from  incomes  as  small 
as  those  of  the  masses  of  the  Indian  population 
is  seriously  felt.  This  alone  is  a  good  reason 
for  not  adding  to  the  present  burden  of  tax- 
ation ;  while  a  second  reason  lies  in  the  very 
limited  range  of  possible  taxes.  It  is  certain 
that  the  Indian  government  could  spend  five 
or  ten  millions  a  year  more  than  at  present  on 
education,  sanitation  and  other  social  services, 

H2 


228    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

Yet  that  sum  could  not  be  obtained  without 
largely  increasing  the  salt  tax  and  the  customs 
duties,  both  of  which  fall  upon  the  general 
body  of  the  population.  The  Indian  govern- 
ment is  thus  on  the  horns  of  a  dilemma.  The 
field  of  administrative  reforms  and  material 
progress  is  unlimited  ;  the  field  of  taxation 
is  very  restricted.  As  the  revenue  under  each 
head  is  steadily  growing  with  the  growing 
wealth  of  the  country,  the  future  might  be 
viewed  with  confidence  but  for  one  thing. 
In  addition  to  the  tax  revenues  of  India  the 
Indian  government  has  long  enjoyed  large 
profits  from  the  opium  trade  with  China. 
Of  late  the  profit  has  been  about  three  millions 
a  year.  We  need  not  enter  into  the  question 
of  the  morality  of  this  trade,  as  it  will  shortly 
be  a  thing  of  the  past.  The  important  point 
is  that  the  Indian  government  at  a  time 
when  it  is  hard  pressed  to  find  money  for 
social  services  of  every  kind  is  about  to 
sustain  a  serious  loss  of  income.  The  gains 
may  have  been  ill-gotten,  but  they  have 
proved  very  useful  in  the  past,  and  their  loss 
will  be  felt. 

The  progress  of  what  may  be  called  the 
business  undertakings  of  the  Indian  Govern- 
ment is  fortunately  not  dependent  on  the 
taxation  problem.  Railways,  canals,  docks, 
harbours  and  the  like  are  profit  earning  works 
for  which  money  may  properly  be  borrowed. 


ADMINISTRATIVE  PROBLEMS    229 

The  credit  of  the  Indian  Government  is  good, 
and  it  is  able  to  borrow  money  at  a  low  rate  of 
interest  for  its  public  works.  The  use  of 
English  capital  on  easy  terms  is  one  of  the 
many  advantages  which  India  derives  from 
the  British  connection.  The  remittance  of 
interest  to  the  foreign  creditor  is  sometimes 
regarded  as  an  injury  to  India,  and  is  called 
a  "  drain  "  on  its  resources.  But  it  is  certain 
that  the  great  undertakings  which  have  been 
carried  out  in  India  by  means  of  foreign  capital 
have  increased  greatly  the  wealth  of  the 
country,  and  are  no  burden  on  the  tax-payer. 
After  payment  of  all  interest  charges  the 
railways  and  canals  of  India  give  a  net  surplus 
to  the  state.  The  public  debt  of  India,  other 
than  that  incurred  for  profit-earning  public 
works,  is  extremely  small,  and  is  yearly 
diminishing. 

This  account,  necessarily  brief  and  imper- 
fect, of  the  more  pressing  problems  of  Indian 
internal  administration,  must  suffice.  A  few 
words  must  be  said  about  the  constitutional 
problem. 

British  rule  in  India  has  been  described  as 
a  gigantic  machine  for  managing  the  entire 
public  business  of  one-fifth  of  the  inhabitants 
of  the  earth  without  their  leave  and  without 
their  help.  The  description  has  at  no  time 
been  exact ;  it  is  now  altogether  incorrect. 
From  the  first  the  people  have  been  associated 


230    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

with  the  British  power  in  the  government  of 
the  country.  The  guidance  and  the  driving 
force  were  of  foreign  origin,  but  they  would 
have  availed  nothing  without  the  willing  and 
intelligent  service  of  many  thousands  of 
Indians  of  all  ranks  and  capacities.  Though 
in  form  autocratic,  the  British  Indian  gov- 
ernment has  always  been  very  sensitive  to 
the  sentiments,  the  interests,  and  even  the 
prejudices  of  the  people ;  the  people,  to  use 
Lord  Curzon's  phrase,  including  the  "  patient, 
humble,  silent  millions "  of  peasants,  the 
eighty  per  cent,  of  the  population  who  have 
no  policies  and  who  read  no  newspapers. 
The  British  Indian  government  long  tolerated 
suttee  and  female  infanticide.  It  still  tolerates 
social  and  religious  practices  that  offend  the 
conscience  of  Europe.  It  has  rarely  moved 
without  first  exploring  the  shallows  and 
sounding  the  depths  of  Indian  opinion.  If  it 
has  sometimes  seemed  cold  and  critically  dis- 
posed to  proposed  changes,  it  has  reflected  the 
traditional  conservatism  of  the  people  at 
large. 

Of  recent  years  the  active  association  of  the 
governed  with  the  government  has  greatly 
increased.  The  country  is  covered  with  a  net- 
work of  local  and  municipal  boards  and 
corporations,  constituted  on  a  representative 
basis  and  exercising  self-governing  powers. 
These  bodies  are  not  free  from  official  control, 


ADMINISTRATIVE  PROBLEMS    231 

but  the  policy  is  to  relax  it  as  the  level  of 
public  morality  and  public  spirit  rises.  The 
educative  effect  of  local  self-government  is 
very  noticeable  in  the  larger  towns.  A  day 
spent  in  Calcutta  or  Bombay  would  reveal 
the  extent  to  which  local  administration  is  in 
the  hands  of  the  community.  The  visitor 
would  commence  his  studies  at  a  meeting  of 
the  municipal  corporation  or  the  city  improve- 
ment trust.  He  would  pass  to  a  sitting  of  the 
senate  of  the  provincial  university,  and  end 
with  a  debate  in  the  provincial  legislative 
council.  He  would  find  in  these  assemblies 
the  Indians  more  numerous  than  the  Euro- 
peans, complete  freedom  of  debate,  fearless 
criticism  of  the  administration.  The  official 
view  might  possibly,  in  most  cases,  prevail, 
but  not  without  modifications  and  con- 
cessions. He  would  conclude  that  Indians 
take  a  large,  active  and  influential  part  in 
public  affairs,  and  in  the  making  of  the  laws 
under  which  they  live.  He  would  come  to 
the  further  conclusion  that  though  the  govern- 
ment in  its  different  branches  is  essentially 
government  by  officials,  or  a  "  bureaucracy," 
the  vast  majority  of  the  officials  are 
Indians. 

The  constitutional  reforms  associated  with 
the  names  of  Lord  Minto  and  Lord  Morley 
are  the  natural  outgrowth  of  a  continuous 
policy.  That  policy  has  been  to  associate 


232  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

the  people  of  India  with  the  government  more 
and  more  closely,  as  time  and  circumstance 
permitted,  while  since  maintaining,  in  the 
common  interest  of  India  and  England,  the 
strength  and  unity  of  the  executive  power. 


CHAPTER   X 

POLITICAL   AND    SOCIAL   MOVEMENTS 

IN  the  last  section  we  tried  to  dip,  as  it  were, 
into  the  mind  of  the  Indian  government,  and 
to  get  some  idea  of  the  problems  that  occupy 
its  thoughts.  To  examine  the  collective 
mind  of  the  Indian  people  and  take  stock  of 
its  contents  is  a  far  more  difficult  and  delicate 
task.  All  that  can  be  attempted  is  to  indicate 
very  briefly  and  generally  the  more  important 
movements  visible  on  the  surface  of  the 
multitudinous  life  of  India. 

Society,  religion,  the  state  are  the  three 
influences  to  which  each  individual  member 
of  a  community  is  hourly  subject.  They 
shape  his  life,  his  thoughts,  and  his  aspirations. 
By  society  we  mean  what  is  sometimes  called 
"  social  environment  "  ;  that  is,  the  social 
system  in  which  he  finds  his  place  and  the 
economic  conditions  which  determine  his 
material  well-being.  The  peculiarity  of  the 
social  system  of  India  is  that  it  is  regulated 
by  the  institution  of  "  caste "  ;  while  the 

233 


234  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

economic  conditions  of  India  are  those  of  an 
archaic  agricultural  community  which  is 
beginning  to  feel  the  impact  of  world-wide 
commerce,  and  in  the  midst  of  which  modern 
industries  are  in  the  act  of  establishing 
themselves. 

In  western  countries  it  is  possible  to 
distinguish  social  and  economic  forces  from 
religious  forces,  and  to  estimate  their  effect 
separately  ;  and  generally  it  may  be  said  that 
the  former  have  a  more  direct  influence  than 
the  latter,  because  they  affect  the  larger  part 
of  life.  In  India  it  is  difficult  to  make  this 
distinction,  as  the  whole  structure  of  Indian 
society  and  to  a  large  extent  the  economic 
conditions  of  Indian  life  are  based  upon  reli- 
gion. With  us  there  is  no  necessary  connection 
between  a  man's  religion  and  his  occupation  or 
place  in  society.  In  India,  at  least  among 
the  Hindus  who  form  the  bulk  of  the  popula- 
tion, caste  determines  each  man's  vocation, 
and  his  actions  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave ; 
and  caste  as  an  institution  is  a  bundle  of 
religious  precepts  and  prohibitions.  We  read 
in  Tennyson's  In  Memoriam  of  the  person 
**  who  breaks  his  birth's  invidious  bar " ; 
No  Hindu  can  do  that.  When  we  say  that 
the  average  Indian  is  pre-eminent  among 
civilised  mankind  for  the  tenacity  with 
which  he  clings  to  his  traditional  "  way 
of  life,"  his  dharma  or  established  order,  we 


POLITICAL  &  SOCIAL  MOVEMENTS  235 

cannot  distinguish  between  the  social  and  the 
religious  influences  that  bring  about  this 
result.  It  is  largely  due  to  caste  that  the 
earning  power  of  Indians  is  low,  and  their 
circumstances  often  embarrassed.  The  high 
caste  man  may  not  drive  a  plough  or  keep  a 
shop  ;  caste  and  religion  make  it  obligatory 
that  he  should  marry  a  wife  before  he  can 
support  a  family,  that  he  should  find  a 
husband  for  his  daughter  before  she  is  grown 
up.  Caste  may  forbid  him  to  kill  plague- 
infected  rats  in  his  house,  and  religion  may 
require  him  to  use  a  polluted  well.  It  has 
been  proved  beyond  all  reasonable  doubt  that 
the  malarial  fevers  which  afflict  the  wealthiest 
quarter  of  the  city  of  Bombay,  and  are 
sapping  the  vitality  of  the  Parsi  community, 
could  be  suppressed  if  the  wells  in  the 
courtyards  of  the  houses,  which  serve  as 
breeding  places  for  mosquitoes,  were  closed. 
Yet  this  very  necessary  and  obvious  improve- 
ment is  obstructed  because  it  is  said  that  the 
ritual  worship  of  the  Hindus  and  Parsis 
cannot  be  properly  performed  with  filtered 
water  from  the  city  mains. 

The  influences  tending  to  keep  the  masses 
of  the  Indian  population  unprogressive  and 
immobile  and  to  check  new  movements  of 
thought  are  very  powerful.  Are  there  any 
forces  operating  in  the  contrary  direction  ? 
We  must  seek  them  in  the  political  system 


236    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

and  institutions  of  British  rule,  in  the  inflow 
of  western  civilisation,  in  the  opening  up  of 
the  country  and  the  quickening  of  industrial 
life  by  railways,  in  the  establishment  of 
modern  industries  by  European  capital,  and 
in  the  more  frequent  intercourse  of  India  with 
the  outer  world.  It  is  to  be  expected  that  in 
a  great  continent  like  India  these  influences 
would  operate  very  unequally.  Such  indeed 
is  the  case.  Their  effect  has  been  greatest 
in  the  large  towns,  especially  in  the  maritime 
capitals,  and  among  the  professional  and 
literary  classes.  They  have  led  to  the  "  un- 
rest "  of  which  unhappily  so  much  has 
been  heard  during  the  last  four  years. 
The  impression  created  by  this  "  unrest " 
upon  persons  coming  into  contact  with  it 
for  the  first  time  is  that  the  new  forces 
have  been  too  strong  for  the  old  social 
order  and  have  fairly  shattered  it :  re- 
ligious beliefs  and  caste  restraints,  morals, 
sobriety  and  discipline  seem  to  have  been 
swept  away  by  the  sudden  flood.  But  the 
symptoms  in  their  extreme  form  exist  in  a  very 
limited  area  and  among  a  small  section  of  the 
population.  *'  It  is  almost  a  misnomer  to 
speak  of  Indian  unrest,"  MR.  VALENTINE 
CHIROL  has  remarked  in  his  powerful  and 
deeply  interesting  book,  Indian  Unrest.  There 
are  vast  numbers  of  Hindus,  he  goes  on 
to  say,  who  are  unaffected  by  it.  "  These 


POLITICAL  &  SOCIAL  MOVEMENTS  237 

include  almost  all  the  Hindu  ruling  chiefs 
and  landed  aristocracy,  as  well  as  the  great 
mass  of  the  agricultural  classes,  which  form 
in  all  parts  of  India  the  overwhelming  majority 
of  the  population.  Very  large  areas,  moreover, 
are  still  entirely  free  from  unrest,  which, 
except  for  a  few  sporadic  outbreaks  in  other 
districts,  has  been  hitherto  mainly  confined 
to  three  distinct  areas — the  Mahratta  Deccan, 
which  comprises  a  great  part  of  the  Bombay 
presidency  and  several  districts  of  the  Central 
Provinces,  Bengal  with  the  new  province  of 
Eastern  Bengal,  and  the  Punjab.  In  these 
regions  it  is  the  large  cities  that  have  been 
the  real  hot-beds  of  unrest,  and  great  as 
is  their  influence  it  must  not  be  forgotten 
that  in  India  scarcely  one-tenth  of  the 
population  lives  in  cities,  or  even  in  small 
townships  with  more  than  five  thousand 
inhabitants." 

It  is  important  to  grasp  the  facts  given  in 
this  passage  as  to  the  limited  and  localised 
character  of  Indian  "  unrest."  They  do  not 
detract  from  its  gravity  where  it  exists.  But 
they  set  it  in  its  true  perspective.  They 
enable  us  to  realise  that  there  are  vast  tracts 
in  the  interior  of  the  country  where  the 
disorders  and  crimes  which  have  stained  its 
course  are  absolutely  unknown,  and  where 
less  is  heard  or  thought  about  them  than  in 
England. 


238    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

We  may  follow  Mr.  Chirol  in  his  account  of 
the  evolution  of  the  extreme  forms  of  Hindu 
unrest.  He  traces  its  first  beginnings  to  the 
licence  of  the  Indian  newspaper  press  in  the 
Mahratta  country,  of  which  Poona  is  the 
capital.  This  press  is  to  a  great  extent  con- 
trolled by  Brahmans,  and  from  historical 
causes  the  Brahmans  of  the  Deccan  have  not 
as  a  body  been  well  disposed  to  British 
ascendancy.  With  the  licence  of  the  press 
various  popular  movements  were  associated, 
based  on  appeals  to  racial  or  religious  senti- 
ments. Thus  there  was  a  movement  against 
cow-killing  which  appealed  to  the  religious 
feelings  of  the  Hindu  population  and  was 
directed  equally  against  Muhammadans  and 
Europeans.  There  was  a  movement  to  cele- 
brate the  birthday  of  Sivaji,  the  hero  of  the 
Mahratta  race,  and  commemorate  his  exploits, 
among  which  was  the  treacherous  murder  of 
the  representative  of  the  Mughal  emperor. 
These  and  other  movements  were  given  a 
religious  colour  by  being  placed  under  the 
patronage  of  the  popular  elephant-headed  god 
Ganesh,  whose  annual  festival  is  kept  in  every 
village  in  the  Deccan.  Their  general  effect 
was  to  excite  active  disaffection  and  to  revive 
dreams  of  a  Mahratta  supremacy  under 
Brahmanic  direction.  It  is  not  alleged  that 
the  persons  who  took  part  in  these  movements 
necessarily  foresaw  whither  they  would  lead, 


POLITICAL  &  SOCIAL  MOVEMENTS  239 

or  were  advocates  of  physical  fcrce.  But  it 
is  certain  that  with  some  of  the  leaders  hatred 
of  the  British  was  a  dominant  passion,  and 
that  they  transmitted  it  to  a  circle  of  ardent 
adherents. 

In  Bengal  the  direct  causes  of  "  unrest " 
were  the  partition  of  the  province  and  the 
reform  of  the  universities.  It  is  outside  the 
scope  of  this  work  to  discuss  the  partition. 
Suffice  to  say,  it  was  undertaken  with  the 
object  of  distributing  between  two  govern- 
ments the  task  of  ruling  eighty-five  millions 
of  people,  and  of  giving  to  the  eastern  half  of 
the  province  its  proper  share  of  attention  and 
of  public  money.  The  reform  of  the  universi- 
ties was  suspected  as  an  attempt  on  the 
part  of  the  government  to  control  and 
curtail  higher  education  and  private  educa- 
tional enterprise.  To  combat  these  measures 
the  leaders  of  the  advanced  party  in  Bengal 
borrowed  from  the  Bombay  presidency 
methods  of  agitation  which  closely  approxi- 
mated to  those  of  physical  force,  and  not 
unfrequently  issued  in  the  gravest  crimes. 
Agitation  in  Bengal  was  given  a  religious 
sanction.  It  was  placed  under  the  protection 
of  the  goddess  Kali.  The  youth  of  Bengal 
were  exhorted  to  rally  to  the  cause  of  the 
great  "  mother,"  whose  land  was  being 
desecrated  and  whose  heart  was  sore.  Two 
words  were  invented,  szvaraj  and  swadeshi, 


240   PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

which  exerted  and  still  exert  by  their  very 
indefiniteness  a  great  influence  on  the  emo- 
tional and  imaginative  Bengali  character. 
Swaraj  means  self-government  and  swadeahi 
national  industries.  The  latter  as  applied  in 
Bengal  included  not  only  the  legitimate 
fostering  of  home  industries  but  the  boycott 
by  physical  violence  of  imported  goods. 
Both  these  objects  were  enforced  by  re- 
ligious oaths,  penances  and  ritual,  and  were 
advocated  in  the  name  of  Kali.  In  Bengal 
as  in  Bombay  a  movement  which  originally 
started  in  discussion  and  in  what  may 
be  called  a  constitutional  manner  passed 
into  violent  acts,  outrages  and  diabolical 
crimes. 

In  the  Punjab  unrest  in  its  extreme  form 
had  a  very  short  life.  There  were  riots  at 
Rawalpindi  and  Lahore,  which  were  promptly 
suppressed  and  were  followed  by  the  deporta- 
tion of  prominent  leaders.  The  movement 
had  a  different  origin  from  those  of  Bombay 
and  Bengal  and  in  many  respects  is  deserving 
of  sympathy.  It  arose  from  the  doctrines 
preached  in  the  Punjab  by  a  religious  reformer, 
Swami  Dayanund  (died  1883),  and  from 
the  activities  of  the  Arya  Somaj,  the  sect 
founded  by  him.  In  the  section  on  Religions 
an  account  has  been  given  of  the  tenets  of 
this  society.  It  aims  at  purifying  Hinduism 
and  restoring  the  beliefs  and  practices  of  the 


POLITICAL  &  SOCIAL  MOVEMENTS  241 

Vedic  age.  But  the  central  doctrine  "  Arya 
for  the  Aryans  "  can  readily  be  pushed  to 
the  point  where  it  is  inconsistent  with 
acquiescence  with  British  rule.  It  has  the 
same  effect  on  impulsive  youth  as  the  appeal 
in  Bengal  to  the  outraged  feelings  of  the 
"  mother  goddess  "  or  the  "  motherland." 
The  disturbances  in  the  Punjab  were  organised 
and  led  by  members  of  the  Arya  Somaj, 
and  the  society  has  been  accused  of  propa- 
gating active  disaffection  through  its  mission- 
aries. Recently  it  has  sought  to  clear  itself 
with  the  government  of  the  Punjab,  and  has 
given  assurances  that  its  aims  are  constitu- 
tional and  its  teaching  confined  to  social 
and  religious  reform.  Its  centres  are  at 
Lahore  and  other  large  towns  of  the  Punjab, 
and  its  adherents  belong  mainly  to  the 
professional  and  official  classes.  M.  JOSEPH 
CHAILLEY,  while  conceding  its  claim  to  be 
a  reforming  movement  on  the  religious 
side,  asserts  that  "  it  is  really  fanatical  and 
obscurantist." 

Reviewing  these  three  extreme  manifesta- 
tions of  unrest  MR.  CHIROL  observes  that 
the  forces  which  underlie  them  have  a  common 
source.  "  They  are  the  dominant  forces  of 
Hinduism — forces  which  go  to  the  very  root 
of  a  social  and  religious  system  than  which 
none  in  the  history  of  the  human  race  has 
shown  greater  vitality  and  stability."  The 


242   PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

movement  is  in  fact  a  social  and  religious 
revival  of  Hinduism.  Within  legitimate  limits 
it  is  a  movement  with  which  well-wishers 
of  India  may  sympathise.  In  its  extreme 
forms  it  is  retrograde  and  allied  with  bigotry 
and  superstition.  "  We  have,"  SIR  ALFRED 
LYALL  remarked  in  his  introduction  to  MR. 
CHIROL'S  book,  "  the  strange  spectacle  in 
certain  parts  of  India  of  a  party  capable  of 
resorting  to  methods  which  are  both 
reactionary  and  revolutionary,  of  men  who 
offer  prayers  and  sacrifices  to  ferocious 
divinities  and  denounce  the  Government  by 
seditious  journalism,  preaching  primitive 
superstition  in  the  very  modern  form  of 
leading  articles." 

Probably  at  no  time  had  the  physical  force 
movement  the  weight  of  educated  Hindu 
opinion,  even  in  the  centres  of  unrest,  on  its 
side ;  though  for  a  while  the  moderates  were 
overborne  by  the  advocates  of  violence  or 
thought  it  prudent  to  acquiesce  in  acts  which 
they  did  not  approve.  To-day  the  moderates 
are  in  possession  of  the  field,  and  the  extreme 
party  is  discredited  and  its  real  weakness  in 
members  and  ability  is  revealed.  Many 
factors  have  contributed  to  this  result,  not 
the  least  powerful  being  the  new  legislative 
councils  and  the  measures  taken  for  liberalising 
the  constitution  of  the  Indian  government. 
The  extreme  claims  of  Hinduism  have  led  to 


POLITICAL  &  SOCIAL  MOVEMENTS  243 

counter  claims  on  the  part  of  the  Muhamma- 
dans,  and  the  wiser  heads  on  both  sides 
perceive  that  in  a  modern  state  there  is  no 
room  for  extreme  religious  pretensions.  The 
idea  of  a  return  to  Brahmanic  supremacy 
and  of  an  exclusively  Hindu  society  is  too 
opposed  to  the  existing  conditions  of  India 
to  stand  examination.  It  appears  to  have 
been  quietly  dropped  by  responsible  political 
leaders  along  with  other  excesses  of  the  period 
of  violence. 

Opinions  naturally  differ  as  to  the  causes  of 
the  passionate  outbreak  of  hostility  to  British 
rule.  Those  who  assign  it  primarily  to  the 
licence  of  the  press  attribute  the  state  of  the 
Indian  newspaper  press  to  a  mistaken  policy 
of  higher  education.  "  The  rapid  expansion 
of  an  educational  system  that  has  developed 
far  in  excess  of  the  immediate  purpose  for 
which  it  was  originally  introduced,  was 
bound  to  result  in  a  great  deal  of  disappoint- 
ment for  the  vast  number  of  Indians  who 
regarded  it  merely  as  an  avenue  to  govern- 
ment employ."  MR.  CHIROL  adds  :  "  Things 
have  in  fact  reached  this  pitch  that  our 
educational  system  is  now  turning  out  year 
by  year  a  semi-educated  proletariat  which  is 
not  only  unemployed,  but  in  many  cases 
almost  unemployable."  Different  views  may 
be  held  both  as  to  the  extent  of  this  over- 
production of  matriculated  students,  and  as 


244    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

to  its  bearing  on  disaffection.  But  there  is 
no  difference  of  opinion  among  thoughtful 
Indians  as  to  the  serious  defects  of  the  col- 
legiate and  university  system,  and  as  to  the 
necessity  for  radical  improvements.  In  this 
work  the  co-operation  of  Indians  and  Euro- 
peans is  assured. 

Mention  may  now  be  made  of  some  of  the 
constitutional  and  legitimate  movements 
that  are  to  be  found  in  present-day  India. 
The  Indian  National  Congress  claims  the 
first  place.  It  was  founded  about  twenty- 
five  years  ago.  Its  object  was  to  bring 
together  in  an  annual  assembly  the  leaders 
of  Indian  liberalism,  irrespective  of  race  and 
creed,  for  the  discussion  of  political  and 
social  reforms  and  for  formulating  recom- 
mendations for  the  consideration  of  the 
Indian  government.  Originally  it  attracted 
the  support  of  not  a  few  Parsis  and  some 
Muhammadans.  But  gradually  most  of  the 
Muhammadans  dropped  out,  the  Parsis  have 
lost  much  of  their  authority,  and  the  Congress 
is  now  predominantly  Hindu.  Its  members 
consist  mostly  of  lawyers,  doctors,  school- 
masters, journalists.  They  are  not  returned 
by  any  definite  constituent  bodies,  or  by  any 
formal  process  of  election.  They  represent 
primarily  themselves,  and  indirectly  and  in  a 
general  way  the  political  ideas  of  the  liberal 
and  advanced  sections  of  the  Hindu  pro- 


POLITICAL  &  SOCIAL  MOVEMENTS  245 

fessional  classes.  The  Congress  has  often 
been  ridiculed  by  its  enemies  for  assuming 
the  title  of  "  national  "  and  for  taking  itself 
seriously  as  a  "  parliament."  It  is  vulnerable 
in  these  respects.  But  undoubtedly  it  has 
acted  as  a  centre  and  rallying  point  for  Hindu 
politicians,  it  has  drawn  public  men  together 
from  all  parts  of  India  and  it  has  fashioned 
the  habit  of  conferences  and  congresses.  Of 
late  years  its  existence  has  not  been  harmoni- 
ous. Dissensions  between  the  extremists  and 
the  moderates  have  interrupted  its  proceedings 
on  several  occasions,  and  in  1907  the 
meeting  at  Surat  ended  in  riot  and  con- 
fusion. The  enlarged  legislative  councils  and 
other  constitutional  reforms  have  now 
diminished  its  importance,  and  there  seems 
a  disposition  to  regard  it  as  having  fulfilled 
its  utility. 

As  the  National  Congress  is  the  con- 
stitutional organ  of  progressive  Hinduism,  so 
the  All-India  Moslem  League  represents  the 
political  aspirations  of  the  educated  Muham- 
madan  community  in  India.  As  its  name 
implies,  its  activities  extend  throughout  India. 
It  has  provincial  branches,  and  also  a  branch 
in  England.  It  was  formed  in  1906,  in  the 
early  days  of  the  political  excitements  gene- 
rated by  the  partition  of  Bengal,  and 
represented  the  natural  anxiety  of  the  Muham- 
madan  community  to  secure  a  full  hearing 


246    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

for  their  political  claims.  Rightly  or  wrongly 
their  leaders  believed  that  any  system  of 
popular  representation  which  did  not  make 
special  provision  for  the  Muhammadans  as 
a  separate  community  would  be  injurious 
to  their  interests.  When  the  scheme  for 
enlarging  the  legislative  councils  and  intro- 
ducing the  elective  element  was  proposed,  this 
became  a  burning  question.  In  the  end 
considerable  concessions  were  made  to  the 
Muhammadans,  and  they  admit  that  they 
have  secured  adequate  representation  on  the 
councils.  The  Moslem  League  has  a  large 
and  varied  programme  at  the  annual  meetings. 
The  League  seeks  to  secure  separate  represen- 
tation for  Muhammadans  on  district  and 
municipal  boards :  to  obtain  a  larger  share 
of  public  offices ;  and  to  promote  the  special 
interests  of  the  community  wherever  they 
are  affected.  It  is  too  early  to  see  how  this 
new  movement,  which  is  necessarily  sectarian 
in  its  aims,  will  shape.  But  the  struggle  over 
the  constitutional  question  has  undoubtedly 
quickened  the  corporate  feelings  of  Indian 
Muhammadans.  A  Muhammadan  university 
in  India  has  long  been  the  desire  of  their 
leaders.  They  have  never  been  satisfied  with 
a  system  of  secular  education  from  which  the 
religious  element  is  sedulously  excluded. 
The  Muhammadan  college  at  Aligarh  was 
established  in  response  to  this  feeling  more 


POLITICAL  &  SOCIAL  MOVEMENTS  247 

than  thirty  years  ago  by  a  very  enlightened 
man,  Sir  Syad  Ahmad  Khan.  It  has  pros- 
pered exceedingly,  and  it  has  within  it  the 
germs  of  a  teaching  university.  But  the 
jump  from  a  single  college  affiliated  to  the 
provincial  university  to  a  self-contained 
Muhammadan  university  is  necessarily  a  very 
big  one,  and  a  few  years  ago  any  such  project 
seemed  impossible  of  realisation.  Under  the 
quickening  influence  of  the  new  political  life  of 
India  the  Moslem  community  have  now  raised 
a  considerable  endowment  fund,  and  have  laid 
a  comprehensive  scheme  before  the  Indian 
Government  for  a  Muhammadan  teaching 
university  at  Aligarh.  It  is  a  remarkable 
instance  of  public-spirited  corporate  action, 
and  it  illustrates  the  change  that  has  come 
over  modern  India.  There  is  no  need  to  fear 
that  the  proposed  university  will  run  on 
narrow  theological  lines.  It  will  start  with 
the  traditions  of  the  Aligarh  college  behind  it, 
and  these  have  been  consistently  as  liberal 
and  enlightened  as  the  mind  of  the  great 
founder,  a  man  worthy  to  rank  with  William 
of  Wykeham  and  other  venerated  benefactors 
of  our  English  and  Scottish  universities. 

The  National  Congress  in  its  origin  con- 
templated social  as  well  as  political  reform. 
But  social  reform  has  now  been  taken  over  by 
another  body  called  the  Indian  National 
Social  Conference,  which  holds  an  annual 


248    PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

meeting  and  in  constitution  and  members 
closely  resembles  the  National  Congress. 
Like  the  latter  it  is  predominantly  Hindu. 
M.  CHAILLEY  thus  describes  its  programme : 
"  It  includes  on  the  social  side  the  right  to 
undertake  distant  voyages,  suppression  of 
child  marriage  (to  which  some  would  add 
that  of  elderly  widowers  with  sons),  the  remar- 
riage of  widows,  temperance,  and  morality. 
On  the  economic  side  it  seeks  training  for 
industrial  and  commercial  careers,  and  to 
attract  capital  and  energy  to  the  continuous 
development  of  national  wealth,  politics 
remaining  definitely  in  the  background.  On 
the  religious  side  it  advocates  fidelity 
to  a  Hinduism  freed  from  the  pagan  scum 
that  has  come  up  to  its  surface ;  it 
desires  no  conversions  to  any  form  of 
Christianity." 

This  programme,  with  additions  and 
variations,  is  repeated  annually  at  provincial 
conferences.  The  number  of  these  conferences 
is  amazing.  There  are  industrial  conferences, 
temperance  conferences,  Parsi  conferences, 
Jain  conferences,  Moslem  and  Hindu  educa- 
tional conferences,  and  many  others.  As  the 
golf  habit  has  fastened  upon  middle-aged  and 
elderly  persons  in  England,  so  the  conference- 
going  habit  has  settled  on  the  educated  Indian 
community.  As  a  form  of  recreation  the  con- 
ference is  not  without  its  merits  in  an  eastern 


POLITICAL  &  SOCIAL  MOVEMENTS  249 

climate.  But  there  is  no  trifling  at  these 
gatherings.  Intense  seriousness  pervades 
them.  The  speeches  often  show  signs  of 
careful  preparation  and  extensive  reading, 
and  occasionally  rise  to  a  high  level  of 
eloquence.  It  is  sometimes  said  that  in  these 
conferences  theory  is  in  advance  of  practice, 
and  that  discourse  fails  to  result  in  action. 
But  this  is  a  common  defect  of  conferences 
all  the  world  over.  A  juster  observation  is 
that  the  Indian  mind  in  these  discussions 
is  seen  moving  among  unfamiliar  ideas.  For 
centuries  it  has  played  with  metaphysical 
speculations,  with  the  riddles  of  spirit  and 
matter,  existence  and  non-existence.  It  is 
without  experience  of  the  problems  with 
which  the  modern  state  is  engrossed,  the 
political,  social,  and  industrial  problems  which 
are  the  every-day  fare  of  our  members  of 
Parliament  and  municipal  councillors.  In 
time  the  acute  and  subtle  Indian  intellect 
will  accommodate  itself  to  the  new  order 
of  ideas  and  will  move  freely  among  them. 
It  will  accumulate  practical  experiences,  and 
deal  with  the  concrete  problems  of  civic  life 
on  the  basis  of  ascertained  and  accepted  facts. 
The  conference  as  an  institution  will  then 
have  greater  actuality.  At  present  it  rather 
tends  to  be  a  dialectical  exercise. 

The  impression  that  this  account  of  social 
and  political  movements  in  India  is  calculated 


250  PEOPLES  &  PROBLEMS  OF  INDIA 

to  create  is  that  the  country  must  be  in  a  stage 
of  rapid  transformation,  and  the  people  in  a 
state  of  intellectual  tension.  But  the  move- 
ment is  confined  to  the  educated  classes  of  the 
towns,  and  mainly  to  the  small  fraction  of 
the  population  that  reads  and  speaks  English. 
Out  of  three  hundred  and  fifteen  millions  of 
inhabitants  little  more  than  one  million  have 
this  knowledge.  Nine-tenths  of  the  popula- 
tion live  in  villages  and  pursue  a  stolid 
conservative  agriculture.  The  members  of 
the  numerous  conferences  and  congresses  that 
sit  at  the  provincial  capitals  at  stated  intervals 
are  drawn  from  a  very  small  body,  and  the 
same  faces  appear  at  the  different  meetings. 
There  are  thousands  of  villages  in  which  no 
one  takes  in  a  vernacular  newspaper.  These 
old-world  communities  are  little  affected  by 
the  movements  of  city  folk.  They  know 
nothing  of  popular  representation,  ballot- 
boxes,  legislative  councils,  national  congresses 
and  other  matters  in  which  the  lawyer  and  the 
j  ournal  ist  del  ight.  They  have  a  very  moderate 
goodwill  for  the  village  school,  to  the  inmates 
of  which  they  contribute  under  considerable 
pressure  a  small  percentage  of  their  children. 
Their  enthusiasm  is  reserved  for  the  new  temple 
with  its  four-handed  figure  of  Vishnu  which 
some  wealthy  grain-dealer  is  erecting  as  a 
thank-offering  for  a  son,  or  for  the  delights  of 
the  annual  pilgrimage  to  the  sacred  bathing- 


POLITICAL  &  SOCIAL  MOVEMENTS  251 

pool  where  the  footprint  of  the  god  is  clearly 
stamped  on  the  rocks.  They  submit  to 
vaccination  because  it  is  prescribed  ;  but  they 
have  greater  faith  in  the  efficacy  of  oblations 
to  the  goddess  of  small-pox.  They  hate  social 
reform,  which  on  its  sanitary  side  is  connected 
with  taxes,  fines  and  inspections,  and  on  its 
ethical  side  involves  breaches  of  caste-law  and 
disrespect  for  tradition.  Doubtless  even  the 
Indian  village  is  changing  and  will  change 
still  more  under  the  pressure  of  ideas  from 
outside  and  of  new  necessities  and  desires. 
But  the  change  will  be  very  gradual.  For 
many  years  the  crust  of  custom  will  rest 
heavily  upon  its  inhabitants,  and  they  will 
resent  being  called  upon  to  step  out  of  their 
established  order,  their  ancient  way  of  life. 
"  We  have  now,"  said  Lord  Morley,  in  an 
illuminating  phrase  in  one  of  his  speeches  in 
the  House  of  Lords  on  the  Indian  Councils 
bill,  "as  it  were  before  us  in  that  vast 
congeries  of  peoples  we  call  India,  a  long 
slow  march  in  uneven  stages  through  all  the 
centuries  from  the  fifth  to  the  twentieth." 
The  more  the  continent  is  studied  through- 
out its  length  and  breadth,  the  more  clearly 
will  the  essential  truth  of  this  picture  be 
realised. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


CHAPTER   I 

The  Indian  Empire. :  being  volumes  i.  to  iv.  of  the  new  edition 
of  the  Imperial  Gazetteer  of  India.  1907.  (These  volumes 
take  the  place  of  The  Indian  Empire ;  Its  Peoples, 
History  and  Products,  which  Sir  W.  W.  Hunter  brought 
out  in  1893,  in  connection  with  the  first  edition  of  the 
Imperial  Gazetteer.  The  four  volumes  are  entitled  re- 
spectively, "  Descriptive,"  "  Historical,"  "  Economic," 
and  "  Administrative."  They  may  be  consulted  for  all 
sections  of  the  present  work.) 

HOLDICH,  SIB  T.—The  Gates  of  India,    1910. 

HUNTINGDON,  E. — The  Pulse  of  Asia.     1907. 

CHAPTER   II 

ELPHINSTONB,  MOTOTSTUABT.— The  History  of  India.    9th 

edition.     1905. 
HUNTER,  SIR  W.  W.— Brief  History  of  the  Indian  Peoples. 

23rd  edition.     1903. 
SMITH,  V.   A. — Early  History  of  India.     1904.     The  Oxford 

Student's   History   of  India.     1908.     Asoka.     1909. 
LANE-POOLE,   S. — Mediaeval  India,   1903.     ("  Story  of  the 

Nations  "  series.) 
LYAI.L,  SIB  A.  C. — British  Dominion  in  India.    4th  edition. 

1907.       Warren   Hastings.      1889.      ("  English   Men   of 

Action  "  series.) 

DUTT,  R.  C. — History  of  Civilisation  in  Ancient  India.     1899. 
The  Rulers  of  India.     A  series  of  27  volumes,  edited  by  Sir 

W.  W.  Hunter.     The  volumes  on  "  Babar,"  "  Akbar," 

"  Aurangzib,"  "  Ranjot  Singh,"  "  The  Earl  of   Mayo," 

"  The   Marquess   of  Dalhousie,"   cover  critical  epochs. 

CHAPTERS   III   AND   IV 
RISLEY,  SIB  H.  H.— The  People  of  India.     1908. 
CROOKS,  W. — The  Popular  Religion  and  Folk-lore  of  Northern 
India.      1896.      Natives     of     Northern     India.      1907. 
("  The   Native   Races  of  the   British   Empire "   series.) 
OMAN,  J.  C. — Cults,  Customs,  and  Superstitions  of  India.    1908. 
253 


254  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

CHAPTER   V 

LYALL,  SIB  A.  C.— Asiatic  Studies.     1899. 
MAODOHHBLL,  A.  A, — A  History  of  Sanskrit  Literature.     1900. 
HOPKINS,  E.  W.— The  Religions  of  India.     1896. 
WILLIAMS,  SIR  MONIKR. — Brahmanism  and  Hinduism.     1887. 
DAVIDS,  T.  W.  RHYS.— Buddhism.     1903.     Buddhist  India. 
1903.     ("Story  of  the  Nations  "series.) 

CHAPTER    VI 

MOBISOH,  SIB  THBODORK. — Indian  Industrial  Organisation. 

likni.     The  Economic  Transition  in  India.     1911. 
Dun,  R.  C. — The  Economic  History  of  British  India.     1902. 

The  Economic  History  of  India  in  the  Victorian  Age.     1906. 

CHAPTER   VII 

ILBERT,  Sra  C.  P.— The  Government  of  India.     1907. 
STRACHKY.  SIB  J. — India,  its  Administration  and  Progress. 

4th  edition.     1911. 
BADBN-POWBIX,  B.  H. — Land  Revenue  and  Tenure  in  British 

India.    2nd  editi  >n.     1907. 

CHAPTER   VIII 

LIB-WABNBB,  SIR  WHAIAM.— The  Native  States  of   India. 

1911.     The  Life  of  the  Marquis  of  Dalhousie.     1904. 
TTTPPBB,  Sm  C.  L. — Our  Indian  Protectorate.     1893. 

CHAPTER    IX 

CHAILLBY,  M.  JOSIPH. — Administrative  Problems  of  British 

India.     1910. 

HtTHTKR,  SIR  W.  W.— The  India  of  the  Queen.     1903. 
RALEIOH,  SIR  T. — Lord  Curzon  in  India.     1906. 
MORLIT,  VISCOUNT. — Indian  Speeches.     1909. 

CHAPTER    X 

CHIROL,  V. — Indian  Unrest.     1910. 

FRASIR,  L. — India  under  Curzon  and  After.     1911. 

JAMES,  H.  R. — Education  and  Statesmanship  in  India.     1911. 

India  and  the  Durbar  :  being  a  reprint  of  the  Indian  articles 

in  The  Times  of  May  24,  1911. 

FTTLLKB,  SIR  B.— Studies  in  Indian  Life  and  Sentiment.     1910. 
TowNsnro,  M. — Asia  and  Europe.     1905. 
MAODOVALD,  J.  R. — The  Awakening  of  India.     1910. 


INDEX 


AFGHANISTAN,  17,  212 
Akbar,  54 

Aryan  race,  9,  36-40,  69 
Arya  Somaj,  122,  241 
As  oka,  42 
Aurangzeb,  55 

Babar,  52,  132 

Baroda,  200 

Bheels,  74 

Bengal,  14,  27,  34 

Bikanir,  29 

Brahmanism,  45,  98 

Brahmaputra,  19,  21,  27 

Brahmo  Samaj,  122 

"  British  India,"  33,  181 

Buddhism,  124 

Burma,  15,  17,  28,  34,  126 

Canals,  11,  214 
Caste,  39,  86-105,  234 
Central  India,  29 
Chota  Nagpur,  28 

Deccan,  30 

Delhi,  26 

"  Depressed  Classes,"  102 

Dravidian  race,  33,  70 

East  India  Company,  57 
Education,  83-85,  224 

Famines,  150-152 


255 


Gandhara  sculptures,  44 
Ganges,  26 
Ghats,  The,  30 
Godaveri,  31 
Gupta  empire,  45 
Gwalior,  191 

Himalaya,  10-11,  18-23 

Hinduism,  108 
Hindustan,  26 
Hyderabad,  32,  190 

India  :  derivation,  9  ;  descrip- 
tion, 14-34  ;  history,  35-64  ; 
races,  69-72 ;  languages, 
78-79;  religions,  106-135; 
agriculture,  139 ;  popula- 
tion, 153  ;  "  double  govern- 
ment "  system,  161  ;  present 
system,  164-180  ;  provinces, 
169;  army,  210 

Indore,  191 

Indus,  10,  19,  21,  24 

Industries,  215 

Jain  ism,  124 
Jaipur,  184 
Jaisulmir,  29 
Jodhpur,  29 
Jats,  97 
Jumna,  26 

Kashmir,  6,  193 


256 


INDEX 


Land  Revenue,  176,  217 
Laws  and   LAW   Courts,    178- 

179 

Legislative  Councils,  165-167 
Lingayats,  102,  121 

Mahabharata,  40 
Mahrattas,  31,  56,  97 
Malabar,  14,  32 
Manu,  87 

Mughal  empire,  53 
Monsoon,  12-13 
Moslem  League,  245 
Muhammadanism,  49,  76-78 
Mysore,  32,  187,  201 

Native  states,  33,  181-206 
National  Congress,  245 
Nepal,  16 

Opium  revenue,  228 

Pitt's  Act  of  1784,  161 
Plague,  222 
Plasaey,  36,  58 

Proclamation,  Queen  Victoria's, 
64  ;  King  Edward's,  64 


Rajputana,  29 
Rajputs,  48,  74,  94-97 
Ramayana,  40,  114 
Reform  :    constitutional,   167, 

231  ;   social,  246  ;   sanitary, 

220  ;   religious,  122 

Salt  duty,  227 
Santals,  28 
Sikhs,  61,  123 
Siva,  11 
Slave  kings,  51 
Sutlej,  38 

Tanjore,  32 
Tibet,  19-20 
Travancore,  32,  188 

Universities,  225,  244 
"  Unrest,"  236-242 

Vedic  writings,  39,  110-113 
Vindhyas,  29 
Vishnu,  118 


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